After the announcement that a Harry Potter TV show remake is on the way at HBO Max, some fans are making it known that they're not thrilled about the news. Based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling series of novels, the Harry Potter movie series began back in 2001, kickstarting a franchise that now includes 8 mainline movies and 3 spinoff movies. Following the disappointing reception to the third Fantastic Beasts movie, was unclear where the franchise would go next, but HBO Max has now unveiled their new plan to continue the Wizarding World.HBO Max announced on Wednesday that a Harry Potter TV show remake is officially happening with an all-new cast and Rowling onboard as an executive producer. Although the show is intended to bolster the rebranded HBO Max streaming service, not all fans were happy about the announcement. Many subsequently took to Twitter to vent their frustrations, with Rowling's involvement representing a major sticking point due to her controversial comments that many have deemed harmful to the transgender community. Check out some of the tweets below:
Harry Potter TV Show Backlash Explained
A major reason why the announcement of a Harry Potter TV show has garnered such backlash is seemingly due to Rowling's involvement in it as an executive producer. The author has been at the center of a number of controversies since 2020 when she shared posts on Twitter that were widely deemed damaging to the transgender community. In the time since her initial posts, Rowling has only doubled down on her controversial views.
Harry Potter stars like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Tom Felton have spoken out against Rowling to varying degrees, which is why some of the tweets claim that the author is now trying to replace them with younger stars. It should be noted, however, that continuing and expanding on the immensely valuable Harry Potter IP has been top of mind for Warner Bros. Discovery for many months at this point, and the show is almost assuredly not primarily driven by any kind of Rowling vendetta.
In addition to the complaints regarding Rowling herself, some of the tweets highlight other reasoning behind the backlash, including the fact that the original Harry Potter movie series was highly successful and remains beloved to this day. Not only that, but Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson remain widely known for their roles as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, respectively, even though it's now been over 10 years since the final film. It remains to be seen how the Harry Potter TV show will turn out, but there are evidently a number of people who don't think it should exist at all.
Source: Various (see above)