J.Ok. Rowling addressed her absence from the Harry Potter reunion particular that aired earlier this yr, revealing she “was asked to do it and decided not to.” The Harry Potter creator and Fantastic Beasts screenwriter solely seems through archived footage within the star-studded Harry Potter twentieth Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts particular on HBO Max, which reunited the surviving solid of 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In a current interview on Graham Norton’s Radio Show Podcast, Rowling stated that she was not excluded from the particular after some viewers speculated whether or not she was requested to not take part due to her controversial feedback about transgender folks.
“I was asked to be on that,” Rowling advised Norton. “I decided I didn’t want to do it. I thought it was about the films more than the books, quite rightly.”
She added: “No one said, ‘Don’t come.’ I was asked to do it and I decided not to.”
In January, EW reported that Warner Bros. Unscripted Television and Warner Horizon, which produced the particular for HBO Max, did invite Rowling to take part; the creator reportedly declined as a result of “her team determined the archived comments from the writer were adequate.” The report added that Rowling’s remarks about trans folks — which have been condemned by GLAAD, the Human Rights Coalition, and The Trevor Project — “did not play a part in the team’s decision.”
Asked if she maintains a relationship with among the eight-movie saga’s “young cast,” together with the actors who’ve “spoken out about you,” Rowling advised Graham: “I have. Yes, I do. I mean, some more than others, but that was always the case. You know, some I knew better than others.”
Co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, who all seem within the particular, are among the many former Harry Potter solid members who’ve voiced assist for the trans neighborhood and publicly disagreed with Rowling. In 2020, Radcliffe wrote a chunk for The Trevor Project condemning Rowling’s feedback, writing partly:
I actually hope that you do not solely lose what was precious in these tales to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest power within the universe, able to overcoming something; in the event that they taught you that energy is present in range, and that dogmatic concepts of pureness result in the oppression of weak teams; when you imagine {that a} explicit character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they’re homosexual or bisexual; when you discovered something in these tales that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that’s between you and the e book that you just learn, and it’s sacred. And for my part, no one can contact that. It means to you what it means to you, and I hope that these feedback is not going to taint that an excessive amount of.
The Harry Potter reunion featured appearances by sequence actors Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, James and Oliver Phelps, Alfred Enoch, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Mark Williams, Ian Hart, and Toby Jones. Franchise producer David Heyman and administrators Chris Columbus (Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets), Alfonso Cuaron (Prisoner of Azkaban), Mike Newell (Goblet of Fire), David Yates (Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2, Fantastic Beasts) additionally appeared.
The Harry Potter twentieth Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts particular is now streaming on HBO Max.
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