Several members of the Potter film cast, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, have distanced themselves from Rowling’s views and affirmed their support for trans rights; the series offers the chance to reframe the legacy of Potter on screen with a cast whose very involvement will constitute a tacit endorsement of Rowling.
It’s almost certain that the new Harry Potter series will feature more diversity than the original, and will likely cast people of colour in some of the major previously white roles, as the stage show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child did when casting a Black actor as Hermione.
Rowling’s source material faced criticisms, too, on ethnic grounds, particularly concerning stereotyping in characters such as the explosion-loving Northern Irish student Seamus Finnigan, bookish Asian pupil Cho Chang – whose name, many have suggested, is a careless mashup of different origins – and the avaricious hook-nosed goblins running the banking system, which many have read as antisemitic.
(Asked once on X (Twitter) whether there were in fact any Jewish students at Hogwarts, Rowling issued a much-mocked five-word reply: “Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard.”) Rowling and others have disputed some of these criticisms in the past, and the author has suggested that prominent characters such as Hermione were written without a specified racial identity.
That producers will be hoping Potter runs for seven seasons – one per book, each corresponding to a school year at Hogwarts – only makes the project less appealing; it is a major commitment for most of the cast, one that will define an entire chunk of their professional lives.
