Warner Bros. is reportedly in talks with J.K. Rowling to reboot her seven “Harry Potter” books, this time as an online TV series.
The prospect that the author — valued at nearly $1 billion — will make even more money and reach new fans has enraged transsexual activists already upset over the author’s past feminist defense of biological women, womanhood, and women’s-only spaces.
Making a deal
Warner Bros. Discover Inc. is close to a new deal for a streaming series on HBO Max based on Rowling’s books, reported Bloomberg.
While they have yet to seal the deal, the company’s CEO, David Zaslav, and HBO chief Casey Bloys have reportedly worked ardently to get Rowling onboard.
Insiders told Bloomberg that each season would be based on a single “Harry Potter” book, meaning the series would potentially run seven seasons long, lest Warner Bros. also re-adapt some or all of Rowling’s “Hogwarts library” and “Pottermore Presents” texts or include an adaptation of the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
Unlike the “Harry Potter” reunion, during which Rowling did not make an appearance alongside former child actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, the author will reportedly be involved in the series “to ensure it remains loyal to her original material.”
This reboot would be in keeping with Zaslav’s desire to invest in fewer movies and TV shows and instead produce a handful of filmic heavyweights.
Extra to “Harry Potter,” Warner Bros. announced in February that it is developing “multiple” new movies set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantastical “Lord of the Rings” universe, “expanding upon the much-loved world and characters of Middle-earth.”
Granted Rowling sold over 600 million copies of her “Harry Potter” books and saw the filmic adaptations rake in over $7.7 billion, Warner Bros. likely figures it has a money-maker in its hands.
Making a big deal about the deal
TheBlaze has previously documented Rowling’s friction with the LGBT community and how she:
- blasted a kid-focused transsexual “charity” for mutilating children and having a pedophile apologist on its board;
- intimated a male transsexual’s claim of being “more of a woman than JK Rowling” was dubious;
- castigated a British politician for refusing to define what a woman is; and
- exposed trans activists who threatened her with rape, death and bomb attacks.
In these and various other instances, Rowling has roused the ire of activists, particularly those who had grown up fans, and stood her ground.
While those upset over the potential reboot may not have threatened to slit the British author’s throat as had transsexual horror author Micah Felker-Martin in February, they have nevertheless expressed their outrage online.
YouTube and film critic Zoë Rose Bryant, a male transsexual, tweeted, “Setting aside how absurdly unnecessary a HARRY POTTER reboot is in the first place, I’d just rather we not continue to give billions to a woman who has made it her life mission to invalidate the existence of trans women & endanger our lives with her unrelentingly hateful rhetoric.”
Bryant added, “I liked HARRY POTTER when I was a kid too and then I grew up and now its creator is actively contributing to a culture that wants me dead so.”
Twitter user Haus of Decline, associated with the scatological webcomic and podcast of the same name, tweeted that in the lead-up to the show’s release, Rowling will gradually put “on a full Waffen uniform as WB execs play chicken with the optics.”
Echoing similar comments, one pronoun-providing Twitter user wrote, “Quick reminder that even if this series is a part of your childhood (as it was for me) please remember your trans friends and family. You might think that one stream doesn’t matter, but it adds up. Please do not give J*K* your money to harm a minority.”
RedState highlighted one particularly extreme reaction, in which a user tweeted, “Harry potter was the 9/11 of literature and we need to put a stop to jk rowling and her devious activities that caused this.”
The YouTuber known as Master of the Total Defense Shogun curated a collection of Twitter users melting down over the announcement, including one Twitter user, Sara, who wrote, “Can we please stop giving JK rowling more attention and give this idea to a book series/author that ISN’T openly transphobic.”
Collider published a polemic, stressing that “companies should not be working with J.K. Rowling.”
“Her transphobic rhetoric is harmful and is being used to justify intolerant legislation against trans folks. The bare minimum companies should be doing is not working with people who spread hate. But even if you wanted to block off Rowling’s transphobic rhetoric, the idea of doing a remake of the original Harry Potter novels as a lengthy TV show is downright bizarre and baffling for countless reasons,” said the article.
The LGBT activist publication Them similarly denounced Warner Bros. for considering rebooting “Harry Potter” with Rowling on board, claiming, “It’s virtually impossible to separate supporting Potter projects from supporting Rowling and her well-documented transphobia.”
Magically undeterred
Dani Di Placido, a film-watcher at Forbes, wrote, “Harry Potter occupies an unusual cultural space, where many of the most dedicated, knowledgeable fans are socially progressive, outspoken about LGBTQ rights, and have largely turned their back on the Wizarding World ever since Rowling scorched her reputation, but still maintain an interest in the franchise.”
Louis Chilton, the Independent’s culture critic, noted that it doesn’t really matter that a fringe group of progressive activists have turned their backs on the children’s books.
According to Chilton, the commercial success of the recently released “Hogwarts Legacy” video game revealed that Rowling’s reputation amongst LGBT activists as a “transphobe” has not proven a “meaningful financial deterrent.”
Den of Geek reported that the game sold over 12 million units in its first two weeks and generated over $850 million in sales during the same period, making it WB Game’s biggest video game launch on record.
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