Harry Potter used to be magical. It used to be the kind of property that offered an escape into a better, kinder, magical world. Now, faced with diminishing returns and controversy after controversy thanks to JK Rowling, it feels like it’s time to pull the plug on the Harry Potter movie franchise. The prospect of this seemed unthinkable just a few short years ago. Coming off the 8-movie adaptation of the Harry Potter saga, everyone was excited to get more of the Harry Potter world. The movies were, after all, a box-office success, despite the fact that book fans never quite warmed up to them.
Even with tons of complaints about the adaptations – valid ones, like Ginny Weasley’s lack of personality, Hermione uttering all of Ron’s good lines, or the fact that the movies always made it seem more like Harry and Hermione were meant to be than the canon couples – fans would have been happy to get more back then. In fact, until a few years ago, fans would have still gladly taken anything in this universe.
Proof of that goodwill was the fact that WB greenlit the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series, a series set in the Harry Potter universe, but that involved no actual Harry Potter characters and very few familiar faces, while casting big stars to play the titular characters. There was no downsizing with Fantastic Beasts. In fact, WB was ramping up to more and more Harry Potter.
Why not? Fans not only accepted the first Fantastic Beasts movie but continued to endlessly speculate about the possibility of not just more feature films, but TV shows based on their favorite characters. Who hasn’t seen the Marauders fancasts floating around? Even if nothing had yet been confirmed, there was always the possibility of more even after the Fantastic Beasts movies were done – not that they were planning to be done with them anytime soon. Harry Potter and The Cursed Child continues the story with Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s kids, and if there was ever one universe that felt like it could keep going forever, it was the Harry Potter universe.
But times have changed, and most of the change can be laid directly at JK Rowling’s door, as her anti-trans stance has made her not just a controversial figure to fans who grew up idolizing her, but a liability to the studio that had bet a lot on continuing to adapt her work. This isn’t just a moral line, though it should absolutely be. When Rowling’s transphobic comments were first published, most of the stars in the Harry Potter movies put out firm statements in support of the trans community, distancing themselves for the author who created the characters that made them famous.
And yet Rowling doubled down, publishing a long essay where she tried to justify her position, and which only served to enrage fans even more, and to turn her into even more of a bad investment. Even those who were clamoring for the idea of separating art from the artist now wowed to never again support anything that directly contributed to Rowling financially.
The outcry has extended to Harry Potter merchandise, the Harry Potter parks at Universal Studios, and even Harry Potter games, despite attempts to separate these from the author’s stance on trans rights. Much of the problem is that, despite WB bringing Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to collaborate with Rowling on the script for Fantastic Beasts 3, she was directly responsible for the scripts for the first two Fantastic Beasts movies, which, though they got decent box office returns, are the lowest-grossing entries in the Harry Potter franchise so far.
Add to that the fact that despite standing behind the actor playing Grindelwald – Johnny Depp – for way longer than it was probably wise public-relations wise, WB was finally forced to cut ties with him last year, and the Fantastic Beasts series is looking on much shakier ground than we could have ever imagined when it was first given the go-ahead.
But it all comes back to Rowling, a once-beloved author who is now a PR nightmare. It’s not only not worth it for WB – or any other studio – to have to be putting out fires just to bring us Harry Potter entertainment, it’s just not necessary. Even for those who grew up with the Harry Potter series, who lined up at midnight for the last three books and attended fandom get-togethers for the movies, it’s okay to let it go.
The books will always be there if someone wants to go back to it, but JK Rowling doesn’t deserve an ounce of the attention, or notoriety, more adaptations will give her. There are a lot of wonderful properties by trans and BIPOC authors out there that could be adapted instead.
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