J.K. Rowling just addressed her absence from the “Harry Potter” reunion that aired earlier this year, stating she “was asked to do it and decided not to.”
For those who have already seen the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special, which is currently airing on HBO Max, it only shows archived footage of the screenwriter.
The special brought together the surviving cast of the 2001 “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” film.
Rowling revealed she was not excluded from the special on Graham Norton’s Radio Show Podcast. “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.”
In the same interview with Graham, Rowling was asked if she maintains a relationship with some of the eight-movie saga’s “young cast,” including the actors who have “spoken out” against her. 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.
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