After the JK Rowling controversy, should HBO even move ahead with the Harry Potter TV show? Here's what I think

HBO's Harry Potter series seems to be in the news because of its author, J.K. Rowling. The author has come under fire for an unending tweets regarding the rights of transgender women. Furthermore, on April 6, 2025, the author went on to unpromptedly attack as*xual people using hurtful language. Due to this, many people are wondering if the much hyped HBO show is even worth considering.

If HBO executive Casey Bloys is to be believed, then yes, it is worth the trouble. However, in my opinion, it is a mistake for the studio to move ahead with the HBO Harry Potter series. While I have my personal biases against Rowling ever since she began supporting some anti-transgender causes in 2019, I feel that HBO's decision to go ahead with the Wizarding World series is a mistake for business reasons as well.

Disclaimer: This article contains the writer's opinion on the upcoming Harry Potter show. It should also be noted that the article discusses Rowling's controversial online posts on LGBTQAI+ rights. Reader discretion is advised.

The Harry Potter books increase in size after the third book

The first season of the upcoming Harry Potter show will be adapting the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 309 pages long, this book can be read by both neurodivergent and neurotypical children. Ask me—I was definitely able to read all seven of these books despite my ADHD and dyslexia. The second and third books are 341 pages and 435 pages long, respectively.

Thus, it seems that the first three books are filmable because, from a budget point of view, they seem comparatively filmable. However, the books become huge right from the fourth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Here is how long the rest of the four books, i.e., Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows, are:

It should be noted that the chapter count also dramatically increases from the fourth book. Thus, HBO might find the first three seasons affordable, but the studio might find itself in a logistical nightmare by the time the fourth season begins filming because the makers have promised that the show will adapt the books faithfully.

There are numerous things from the book that the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie cut out, which is why the movie ended up as uneven as we see it. The fourth season will cost HBO a lot of money to bring to life, like the dragon (first Tri-Wizard tournament task), merpeople (second task), the sphinx, and several other creatures in the maze (third task).

J.K. Rowling's views only further alienated her former admirers:

Ironically, the Harry Potter books helped a lot of milenial queer people. This is why a lot of them were left heartbroken because the creator of their favorite world turned on them out of nowhere, at a time when the world was reeling from the effects of a pandemic. Rowling's X (formerly Twitter) account is mostly filled with posts attacking the trans community, especially trans women.

Since then, the author went on to attack even the as*xual people on International As*xuality Day, i.e., April 6, 2025. Furthermore, a few days later, the author even celebrated the British Supreme Court's decision on the definition of a woman.

Furthermore, in February 2024, Rowling donated £70,000 (approximately $93,000) to the anti-trans organization For Women Scotland to reduce the legal definition of "women" to just "biological s*x". These frequent attacks on the queer people has completely aliented a lot of LGBTQAI+ fans who credit her books in discovering themselves.

Therefore, several people from the LGBTQA+ community and their allies have sworn off the franchise and refuse to financially support anything from the franchise. While there are still fans of the franchise, it isn't enough for HBO to feel secure enough to go through with all seven books of the series.

Casey Bloys, an HBO executive, tried to downplay the situation by saying this in his recent podcast appearance. In the second part of his interview in The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Bloys said this:

"The decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We've been in business for 25 years. We already have a show on HBO from her called C.B. Strike that we do with the BBC. It's pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She's entitled to them. Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything. And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter."

This comment makes it clear that HBO's decision to greenlight the series for now is more of a business decision rather than a moral one. I feel that this situation is similar to the 2023 movie, The Flash. The movie's star, Ezra Miller, was accused of several unsavory things throughout 2022, and yet the studio tried to downplay it all, only for the movie to crash and burn when it finally released.

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