Emma Watson Daniel Radcliffe Jk Rowling

Every hero needs an origin story. It’s one thing to perform great feats of bravery and foil the plots of evil forces, but it means so much more if audiences know where the character they’re rooting for started from. And Harry Potter has one of the all-time great origin stories. Not just the character himself (although the orphan in the cupboard under the stars is a brilliantly compelling creation), but also the novels he appears in. 

Everyone know that Harry Potter started in an Edinburgh café; that the woman who wrote him was a single mother, surviving on benefits while she worked to bring Hogwarts to life; and that her ascent to global bestseller status is, in its way, as much a triumph for magic as anything that happens in the saga she created. Or everyone used to know this. Recently, though, it seems that JK Rowling is being written out of the very world she invented. 

To mark the 20th anniversary of the first film (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), HBO Max is broadcasting a one-off retrospective on new year’s day in the US, reuniting  all the key figures of the films. (There’s no word yet on whether this will be available to view in the UK.) According to Tom Ascheim of Warner Bros, it will be “a tribute to everyone whose lives were touched by this cultural phenomenon.”

Emma Watson,j K Rowling,rupert Grint And Daniel Radcliffe Arrive At The Uk Premiere Of Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Which Was Held At The Odeon In Leicester Square In London

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — the trio of then-child actors who played Harry, Hermione and Ron — will be there of course. So too will Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes and many more from the scores of actors to have featured in the vast cast of Hogwarts. But one person won’t be appearing in the studio: JK Rowling seems to have been cut out from the Potterverse. 

The erasure isn’t total. She will, apparently, feature in archive footage, but there will be no new interview from the woman without whom there would be no Harry Potter at all. While neither she nor anyone from Warner Bros has given a reason for this, the obvious interpretation is this: Rowling can’t be accommodated in the celebrations because of her failure to keep in line with the diktats of transgender activism. 

In 2020, Rowling published an essay arguing that support for trans people shouldn’t mean compromising women’s rights. It was a considered piece of writing, underscored by personal experience –  in it, she revealed for the first time that she had been a victim of abuse from her first husband. It was read widely, but not everyone found her perspective sympathetic. 

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By questioning whether children should be given puberty-blocking drugs, or men should be entitled to legal reclassification as women without undergoing any kind of sex-change surgery, Rowling had marked herself as a “terf” – trans exclusionary radical feminist. As she wrote in her essay, to be called a terf is to be made an exile from acceptable liberal society: according to the supposed activists who attacked her for her views, she “deserved cancelling, punching and death.”

Rowling’s statements blew open an incipient divide between her and the cast who had become famous as her characters. Radcliffe, Watson and Grint were all quick to dissociate themselves from Rowling. Radcliffe declared: “Transgender women are women.” Watson tweeted: “I want my trans followers to know that I… see you, respect you and love you.” And Grint issued a statement in which he said: “I firmly stand with the trans community.”

What none of them did was offer any support to Rowling herself. They didn’t even acknowledge her history of abuse. It should be possible to express sympathy and graciousness even in disagreement –  Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the series, is among those who believes “trans women are women”, but she had the humanity to add that trans activist Potter fans shouldn’t “bully or hate people on the other side of the debate.”

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That ought not to be an exceptional approach, but it stands in glaring contrast to Radcliffe, Watson and Grint. In an Instagram post announcing the 20th anniversary special, Watson didn’t even mention Rowling, though did throw in a shoutout to the fans: “The magic of the world wouldn’t exist without you. Thank you for fighting to make it such an inclusive and loving place.” It reads distinctly like a barb aimed at Rowling.

This is vicious stuff when you consider what Radcliffe, Watson and Grint owe to Rowling. It’s fair to say that none of them would have a career at all if they hadn’t happened to be of the right age and physical appearance to play her characters. Grint is by some distance the more talented actor, if only because he’s merely poor, whereas Radcliffe and Watson actively suck the life out of everything they’re in. 

Radcliffe’s career highs include a leaden performance in The Woman in Black and the ridiculous Guns Akimbo, while Watson has conspired to almost ruin a series of high profile movies (including Little Women

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But perhaps it’s precisely because they have such a debt to Rowling that they appear complicit in a plan to disown her. Origin stories are all very well for the great, but when you’re a mediocrity, it must really hurt to be reminded that you’re only famous because you caught the train of someone as brilliant as Rowling. Rupert Grint has become the latest member of the Harry Potter cast to condemn JK Rowling for her comments about trans people.

Less than a week after she originally faced backlash for tweeting in criticism of the trans-inclusive phrase “people with periods”, the children’s book author published a lengthy open letter to her website on Wednesday (10 June) breaking down her stance on transgender issues.

In response, Grint, who played Ron in the fantasy franchise, told The Times that he agreed with his former castmates in standing with the transgender community after a number of Harry Potter stars distanced themselves from Rowling’s words to support their transgender fans.

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The star of the Harry Potter franchise, Daniel Radcliffe, was one of the first actors involved in the films to call out Rowling, in an essay penned for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention charity The Trevor Project on Monday (8 June).

“Transgender women are women, ” Radcliffe wrote. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.

“It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm, ” he continued.

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“To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you.”

A vocal feminist activist, Emma Watson was pictured wearing a t-shirt which reads: “Trans rights are human rights”. The image was widely circulated on social media in the wake of Rowling’s initial comments, but the actor officially spoke out following the publishing of the author’s blog post.

“Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are, ” Watson tweeted.

Movie Magic 5/2004 Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe Emma Watson Rupert Grint Fn At Amazon's Entertainment Collectibles Store

“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”

Adding that she had donated to charities Mermaids and Mama Cash , the actor encouraged her followers to do the same, concluding: “Happy #PRIDE2020 Sending love x.”

“I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers, ” Grint said. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men.”

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Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the franchise, joined Watson in showing support for trans Harry Potter fans after Rowling’s essay was released.

“If Harry Potter was a source of love and belonging for you, that love is infinite and there to take without judgment or question, ” she wrote.

Luna Lovegood actor Evanna Lynch joined Radcliffe in explicitly apologising to trans Harry Potter fans who had felt “abandoned” byRowling’s comments, adding that people should “listen to” and “applaud” trans people for their bravery, especially during Pride Month.

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“I imagine that being trans and learning to accept and love yourself is challenging enough and we as a society should not be adding to that pain, ” the Irish actor wrote.

“Feeling like you don’t fit in or aren’t accepted for who you are are the worst, most lonely feelings a human can experience and I won’t be helping to marginalise trans women and men further.”

Lynch continued: “I’m so sorry to any trans people who feel that’s been taken away or that this community is no longer that safe place. But the Harry Potter world/fandom/community is literally made up of millions of people now and I for one will work to make it feel inclusive because trans women are women.”

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