To be saddened, and yet also angry, that the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary Reunion show totally blanked JK Rowling?

[SkyBlueBlues]

I mean, she did create the bloody thing!

Just watched it. 100 minutes of the young cast who were the main characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Malfoy, Neville Longbottom, The Weasley brothers, etc,) gushing over one another. Laughing and hugging and kissing, and reminiscing and brushing tears from their cheeks, as they whispered 'we're family... always have been, always will be.......'

Not ONE mention of the woman who created it all, and gave them the lives they have now. In fact many people were interviewed, including Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Gary Oldman, Robbie Coltrane, Bonnie wright, Alfred Enoch, Toby Jones, Mark Williams, Jason Isaacs, etc. Not ONE of them mentioned JK Rowling.

All we got featuring JK, was two 10 to 15 second clips of footage from an interview she did 3 years ago. The narrator mentioned her ONCE! That's it! None of the 'stars' mentioned her, or thanked her for ANYthing. As I said, Harry Potter exists because of HER. Yet she was not deemed worthy of a mention or a thank you.

AIBU to think it's sad and also bloody infuriating, that she has been blanked in this manner? IMO, it's clearly because of the accusations of her being 'transphobic,' (which I don't think she is frankly,) and I am dismayed and somewhat disgusted, that these young people whose careers exist because of JK Rowling, are now treating her like a pariah.

I am a huge fan of Harry Potter, both the books and the films, and this has sullied it all for me now.

Quells surprise that CorBlimey is here with their usual lies. Do quote from her actual essay where she said that

OP YANBU without her books there would be no films & Radcliffe, Watson & Grints willingness to chuck a woman who has shown them nothing but kindness under a bus shows them up for the lightweights that they are.

@CorrBlimeyGG

She outed herself as a bigot. You can understand why many of the cast don't want anything to do with her.

(Conflating sex offenders with trans women is transphobic, whatever you 'don't think frankly'.)

I presume you haven't read her very measured, compassionate, articulate piece then.

She is clearly not a bigot.

She is undoubtedly not transphobic.

Even my own otherwise intelligent, thoughtful gay son refuses to read the fucking piece because he'd rather hate her from afar. It infuriates me. Any excuse for misogyny...

@CorrBlimeyGG

She outed herself as a bigot. You can understand why many of the cast don't want anything to do with her.

(Conflating sex offenders with trans women is transphobic, whatever you 'don't think frankly'.)

She's not a bigot.

Trans women, when they are sexual offenders, have male patterns of offending. And they do.

The vast majority of sexual offenders, and all trans women, are male.

@CorrBlimeyGG - tell me ONE thing JK said that was actually transphpobic. Have you read her article?

Depressing that 17% think YABU. That said just a year or two ago there would have vicious resistance to even just discussing this and the thread would have likely been deleted or at best taken over by a load of lib fem types/hand wringers expressing horror at MN being such a disgusting hotbed of transphobic bigotry.

I've only watched the first half hour or so, but in that half hour she was on screen three or four times and mentioned as "Jo" or more explicitly at least a dozen times and praised every single time. I was expecting many fewer mentions based on what I read here, but I thought she was very much present.

I hate the way her legacy is being so impacted by all this shite. Every day I have crappy articles showing up in my newsfeed denouncing her. We're massive Harry Potter and JK fans in our house and it just makes me sad to see her being trashed constantly. It has to take its toll, despite all the support she gets too.
My ds watched the reunion as he's such a super fan and too young thankfully to know about any of the "controversy". I couldn't be bothered watching it if she wasn't included as she should be.

@CorrBlimeyGG

She outed herself as a bigot. You can understand why many of the cast don't want anything to do with her.

(Conflating sex offenders with trans women is transphobic, whatever you 'don't think frankly'.)

could you provide sources for the sex offenders are transwomen?

I have read all I can find that she has posted and haven't seen this.

And if the cast didn't want anything to do with her they should give up any money received from being associated with her.

I've just reread her article and she said nothing of the sort .

She is an amazing woman and quite frankly a fighter, she comes across as pretty strong.

It might take years but I imagine she will get a public apology at some point when it all goes too far and and there is no option but to resort back to common sense, no matter how much people don’t want that, it will prevail- we just have to wait ages for this whole thing to go full circle.

@Withnailandyou

Her involvement in the actual films was fairly limited. She's often commented on it in interviews

She invented the entire premise upon which the films were based.

It would be like having a reunion of all of the cast members of Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea without actually mentioning Jules Verne. But worse because Verne had at least been dead 50 years before any film adaptations so didn't actually have any involvement in their production. Unlike JKR who is very much still alive and retained some creative influence.

@Nancydrawn

I've only watched the first half hour or so, but in that half hour she was on screen three or four times and mentioned as "Jo" or more explicitly at least a dozen times and praised every single time. I was expecting many fewer mentions based on what I read here, but I thought she was very much present.

She most definitely was NOT mentioned a dozen times in the first half hour, and 'praised every single time.' You clearly watched a totally different programme to what I am on about!

@ReiltinDubh

I hate the way her legacy is being so impacted by all this shite. Every day I have crappy articles showing up in my newsfeed denouncing her. We're massive Harry Potter and JK fans in our house and it just makes me sad to see her being trashed constantly. It has to take its toll, despite all the support she gets too. My ds watched the reunion as he's such a super fan and too young thankfully to know about any of the "controversy". I couldn't be bothered watching it if she wasn't included as she should be.

This. ^ Well said.

Agree op.
It's her entire created world which has employed and made money for Thousands upon thousands of people and... Provided working for many elderly actors who struggle to find roles. On top of all the merchandise, theme park stuff people who are design and make the rides, the workers the tat shops... Thousands have made money soley due to this world she created.

She was mentioned a lot but she isn’t exactly popular. I don’t think half the cast would have appeared in it had she she been involved. Sorry!

@blubberball

Wasn't she executive producer, and didn't she insist that the films were made in Britain with a British cast? I always thought that she was quite involved with the films at the time.

She was involved in the initial set up and had final say over some things but it was mostly a consultation role..

So in the beginning when WB wanted to set it in the USA with American actors etc she was adamant that it had to be kept in the UK with a British cast, which is fair enough as it would have entirely changed the tone to change the basic setting.

She was consulted in the final casting of certain actors and had discussions with some of them about key character points (Alan Rickman knew his characters entire arc from day one because she insisted on sitting down and talking to him about it as it would affect his acting decisions).

Additionally, because the book series wasn't finished when the movies started she would get final say on the scripts as she would have to advise them of any movie changes that would cause issues in the future (iirc there were times that they wanted to cut out certain scenes/characters for pacing and she basically said "That scene is an important set up for a later plot point, it needs to stay in") but that was all pre-production type admin, where they had to consult with her as the source material was not a closed canon so they needed to keep her in the loop for logistical purposes if nothing else.

@Mrsjayy

Wasn't she executive producer, and didn't she insist that the films were made in Britain with a British cast? I always thought that she was quite involved with the films at the time.

Yes I think so, she certainly said she had adult actors in mind for characters.

Indeed, Robbie Coltrane and Maggie Smith were her choices.

I thought the jkr bits they added were strange. The interview with her looked really old but was only from 3 years ago. They just didn’t fit. I don’t know if she refused to take part but I thought even if she wasn’t meeting the cast it would make sense to do new interviews that fit with the rest of the show.

I doubt she will be the that bothered. The event sounds like a who's who of sanctimonious arseholes.

At the end of the day though, regardless of what was/wasn’t said and what people think about it, it’s possible to separate the art from the artist.

This programme was to celebrate Harry Potter. It would have been impossible to have given JKR too much of a platform without then opening the whole thing up to controversy. Better that her mention was minimal, that way the art that is Harry Potter can be celebrated, and people can voice their opinions of JKR elsewhere. Harry Potter would have been overshadowed otherwise.

It’s a bit like Michael Jackson. Some believe him to have committed certain offences even though there is no proof, and yet even many of those who believe that still acknowledge that his music was brilliant.

@NannaMcPhoo

I doubt she will be the that bothered. The event sounds like a who's who of sanctimonious arseholes.

I didn't watch out of solidarity with JKRowling.

An utter disgrace 😒

Emma 'What shall I call myself today - loooooook at me' Wokeson should really perhaps give all her earnings back if she has decided she hates the person who literally gave her the fame she has now, so much

I would imagine she is smart enough to have made her own choices about appearing on this. As far as I know there's been a resounding silence on whether she was left out or declined. Which rather makes me think she declined and is refusing to engage with all the nonsensical debate around this.

@BurntO

She was mentioned a lot but she isn’t exactly popular. I don’t think half the cast would have appeared in it had she she been involved. Sorry!

With a flick of her finger she could have prevented there from being such a programme at all! They should be kissing her feet for the careers and lives she gave, in particular, those desperately wooden child actors who subsequently developed into thoroughly mediocre adult actors. EW is particular is so affected that I cannot watch her and that was before her foolishness around trans issues.