HBO Max has recently announced that original stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and the extended cast members will reunite for the first time for Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. The reunion will debut on January 1, 2022. The upcoming special will recall the production or the creation of the first film from 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, in honor of the 20th anniversary.
Meanwhile, Harry Potter writer and author J.K Rowling will not make a personal appearance in any new content for the special. According to a source close to the production confirmed to People that she will be shown in archival footage throughout. Notably, her name was also not listed in the teaser for the highly anticipated reunion.
However, Rowling came under fire in June 2020 when she appeared to support anti-transgender sentiments in a series of tweets. Although she denied that her views on feminism are transphobic, she doubled down on her controversial viewpoints in a lengthy article shared on her website days later.
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and, Rupert Grint each spoke out against Rowling’s much-criticized remarks regarding the transgender community. Radcliffe, 32, stated definitively in an article for The Trevor Project that “transgender women are women.” Radcliffe wrote at the time, “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.”
In addition to Radcliffe, Grint, 33, said in a statement at the time, “I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”
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Meanwhile, 31-year-old Emma Watson also expressed her support in a Twitter thread, she tweeted, “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. 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.”
However, responding to backlash back in June 2020, Rowling penned that she refuses to “bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it.”
The writer and author of the Harry Potter series published a new children’s book with Scholastic titled The Christmas Pig in October, and she penned a screenplay for the forthcoming third Fantastic Beasts movie The Secrets of Dumbledore that will hit theaters on April 15, 2022.