Expelliarmus! J.K. Rowling Disarms Her Critics Again And Again

Stop the fight!

The Legacy Media and the Left (but we repeat ourselves) declared war on “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling in 2019 after she questioned elements of the trans agenda.

Rowling, a certified progressive on cultural and political matters, refused to rubber stamp every aspect of the movement.

Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?

For that, she was canceled in every way possible, over and again.

Some attempts proved literal. She was the queen of the TERFS to the Left — Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists.

Now, nearly six years later, she’s emerged as a leading voice for sanity in the trans arena. She repeatedly speaks her mind on X, fights back against her legion of critics and is a key player behind one of the most anticipated streaming shows of our time.

HBO Max’s new “Harry Potter” series, due in either late 2026 or 2027, will retell the seven-book series captured in the epic eight-part film saga.

The battle rages on all the same, and she refuses to apologize. Still.

She’s blasted a “creepy” trans activist for bathroom selfies, slammed attempts to conflate the Pope’s name with an absurd trans argument and stated the obvious when it comes to casting the new “Potter” series.

She responded to a journalist’s provocative narrative suggesting she wouldn’t hire an actor who disagreed with her trans issues.

I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did … I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.

That likely would have been a staunchly liberal stance 20 years ago. Those comments sound positively conservative in 2025, even though Rowling has never identified herself as conservative.

Either way, it’s refreshing to see an author embrace free speech.

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Actors linked to the “Harry Potter” universe, either the existing films or the future TV show, are continually asked about Rowling’s views on trans issues. The media remains obsessed with Rowling’s willingness to speak her mind and share views considered mainstream by many.

Future “Harry Potter” star Nick Frost – he is tentatively set to play Hagrid in the TV series – blazed a mature path on the matter.

She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine, they just don’t align in any way, shape or form.

Translation: A gig’s a gig, most likely. Frost still suggested in the same interview we need to “educate ourselves” on trans issues. The sight of too many trans female athletes dominating biological females may be all the learning we need, Hagrid 2.0.

Tom Felton, who played the wicked Draco Malfoy in the original films, sidestepped a leading question on the red carpet while throwing his support behind Rowling. He’s co-starring in a Broadway adaption of Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

He didn’t share his stance on trans issues with the scribe. He simply praised an author who made his career shine impossibly brighter.

The only thing I always remind myself is that I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world. Here I am in New York … and I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter, and she’s responsible for that. So I’m incredibly grateful.

Compare that to the verbal brickbats thrown by the original Harry Potter and Hermione, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, at Rowling over her trans views.

Jon Furniss/WireImage

Here’s the former Harry Potter taking her to task for her views.

It makes me really sad, ultimately … I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.

HBO Max has had Rowling’s back for some time. The streamer also sees a shifting cultural landscape. The Warner Bros. Discovery platform might have chafed at joining forces with Rowling four or five years ago.

That was before Riley Gaines struck endless blows on behalf of biological women and Matt Walsh’s groundbreaking documentary “What Is a Woman?” had yet to be released.

Remember the tiny role Rowling played in the 2022 “Harry Potter” reunion special on HBO Max? Rowling said she declined an invitation to appear, but her archival footage proved brief and perfunctory.

Surely there’s countless footage of the author exploring the magical universe that transported countless children while teaching them to love reading?

Now, the streamer is desperate to stay in her good graces and wring every eyeball possible from the upcoming series. HBO CEO Casey Bloys made that obvious earlier this year.

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.

Rowling never wavered through it all. One could argue she has enough money to ignore Cancel Culture and the media, but others with very deep pockets bowed to the progressive mob in short order.

Take Stephen King. The horror maestro backpedaled when progressives attacked him for suggesting merit matters more in the arts than diversity box checking. He even penned a mewling apology/essay in The Washington Post to keep the Cancel Culture mob at bay.

Scarlett Johansson, arguably the most popular actress in the country, similarly did the Hostage Apology routine after she briefly accepted a gig playing a trans person. That film, “Rub and Tug,” never got made sans the actress’ clout and star power.

Rowling has stayed true to her beliefs and has only grown bolder since the 2019 dustup. She trusted “Harry Potter” fans, or enough of them at least, would have her back.

She was right.

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Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.