JK Rowling says she chose not to participate in HBO's Harry Potter reunion because 'it was about the films more than the books,' after speculation that she wasn't asked due to her anti-trans comments

JK Rowling at the "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" World Premiere in March 2022.

Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

• JK Rowling says she chose not to participate in HBO Max's Harry Potter reunion special.
• "I thought it was about the films more than the books, quite rightly," she told Graham Norton.
• Speculation swirled at the time that she wasn't asked to be included in the special over past anti-trans comments.

When "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts" debuted on HBO Max earlier this year, speculation swirled that Harry Potter creator JK Rowling wasn't asked to participate because of her past anti-trans comments.

The reunion special instead used archival footage of interviews with the author, with an on-screen note that said they were filmed years earlier.

But in an interview this week with Graham Norton, Rowling struck down that speculation, saying that she chose not to participate. When Graham said that Rowling was "excluded" from the special, Rowling pushed back.

"I was asked to be on that," she said. "I decided I didn't want to do it. I thought it was about the films more than the books, quite rightly. That was what the anniversary was about."

Rowling sparked backlash in 2020 with a lengthy essay defending her stance on the trans community and her concerns regarding "trans activism." She's doubled down on the stance since in a number of tweets. 

"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman ... then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside," Rowling wrote. 

Rowling also told Norton that she still keeps in contact with some of the cast members of the movies, "some more than others."

But some actors from the "Harry Potter" films have spoken out against Rowling's rhetoric.

"I firmly stand with the trans community," Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, said in 2020. "Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment."

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