J.K. Rowling addressed her absence from the Harry Potter reunion special that aired earlier this year, revealing she “was asked to do it and decided not to.” The Harry Potter author and Fantastic Beasts screenwriter only appears via archived footage in the star-studded Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special on HBO Max, which reunited the surviving cast of 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In a recent interview on Graham Norton’s Radio Show Podcast, Rowling said that she was not excluded from the special after some viewers speculated whether she was asked not to participate because of her controversial comments about transgender people.
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“I was asked to be on that,” Rowling told 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 special for HBO Max, did invite Rowling to participate; the author reportedly declined because “her team determined the archived comments from the writer were adequate.” The report added that Rowling’s remarks about trans people — 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 some of the eight-movie saga’s “young cast,” including the actors who have “spoken out about you,” Rowling told 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 appear in the special, are among the former Harry Potter cast members who have voiced support for the trans community and publicly disagreed with Rowling. In 2020, Radcliffe wrote a piece for The Trevor Project condemning Rowling’s comments, writing in part:
I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion, nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you, and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.
The Harry Potter reunion featured appearances by series 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 directors 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) also appeared.
The Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special is now streaming on HBO Max.
