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.

@ParishSpinster

I remain thoroughly disappointed in Daniel Radcliffe for apologising to trans people on behalf of JKR and for what she is alleged to have said.

That is disloyalty. No woman needs a man to apologise for her, misrepresent what she said in his earnest apology and then continue to gain kudos for his career built entirely on a character written by the her.

JKR deserves to continue to be recognised as the creator of Harry Potter and all books and merch associated with it. How can you have a series of films based on books and not spend time on her inspiration and whether the films represent her own vision?

I would have happily watched that than the many, many minutes of watching the three leads gush over how they love each other.

All of this ... ^ These ungrateful young, (and frankly average and fortunate) actors owe JK an apology.

@Latticeallure88

YANBU op. It's a disgrace.

Read JKR's actual words (not her reported words). She is not transphobic, she is pro-women!

Exactly this! ^

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

Here's where she says the opposite of what you're accusing her of:

I believe the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others, but are vulnerable for all the reasons I’ve outlined. Trans people need and deserve protection. Like women, they’re most likely to be killed by sexual partners. Trans women who work in the sex industry, particularly trans women of colour, are at particular risk. Like every other domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor I know, I feel nothing but empathy and solidarity with trans women who’ve been abused by men.

Always best to check something for yourself instead of believing any old shit some muppets on Twitter tell you.

I hit YABU by accident, but of course you absolutely are not being U.

Those posh twits would be nobody without J K Rowling. And they know it. Or do they?

JK Rowling has created something that will provide jobs for people in this country for decades if not far longer.

Look at the legacy of similar creations & see how they add to the economy as well as the cultural wealth of this country.

Beatrix Potter & her world.
Tolkein & his.
Mark Baker & Neville Astley (think you don't know them? They created Peppa Pig)
A A Milne - Winnie the Pooh
Andrew Lloyd Webber - so many musicals
Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen there's many more.

These creations year after year bring tourists to the country & have massive retail sales worldwide (Peppa Pig generates over a billion a year all on it's lonesome)

She has added to the treasure chest of British creativity & this benefits the whole country.
Creativity is one of the few things this country still 'manufactures'.

Now, I've phrased that badly because I am not a financial expert but there would be no massively profitable 20th Anniversary Reunion without her.
Not a one of those people would have been paid a penny, not one of those actors would have become household names for being part of her creation, the people behind the cameras would have been looking for other jobs, the people making licenced merchandise, spin offs etc... would have been spending that money elsewhere.

I know, not all the money comes to the UK but if you are a British actor, surely you've noticed that these parts are some of the few where you don't have to always be the stuck up baddie who gets defeated by the plucky American & that isn't some obscure British film that doesn't do as well as a Hollywood Blockbuster.

My brain isn't working today & I can't think how to put this eloquently but this woman created a new sport that is played across the world.
A NEW SPORT, just as an aside while doing something else.

JK Rowling is a national treasure & she is STILL WRITING.
STILL producing more & just as nobody could predict how big Harry Potter would become, you don't know if she will go on to create something that eclipses that creation.

I don't personally even like her books but I can respect her success & see that many other people do.

The fact that she does all this while actually having the personal integrity to stand up for what she believes in when it would be so easy for her to just take the money & sit back is even better.
She also does that while NOT actually hurting transpeople no matter how offended some people may feel.
She could.
She could write terrible things, create characters who belittle anyone different & because of who she is it would get out to the world but she doesn't ever do that.

Of course she should have been in the show.
It couldn't exist without her.

As an aside she was invited to take part and declined. I don't blame her given how's she's been treated, but not the same as excluded.

Oh, you know that for a fact? I've not seen this reported anywhere.

The last month or so people have been saying she shouldn't be in it because she had little to do with the films and yet had lots of creative control inc the representation of goblins and filming at Australia House.

OP You say that she wasn't mentioned. I don't know cos I haven't watched it. There are others disputing you. If they are right and she was mentioned lots, surely she would have had lots of interactions about the films/characters etc with the cast/crew/production company when they were made? Therefore, she should have been included just on that basis. For me though, Queen JK is an integral part of of the story and it feels wrong to not have had her there.

@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.

I only saw the entire HP series in late 2020 and one of the things I loved most about it was you were watching JK Rowling’s personal canvas with actors/actresses from her favourite TV shows (and a favourite singer too).

1 and 2. John Cleese, Basil Fawlty (Fawlty Towers)

1. Jim Norton, Bishop Brennan (Father Ted)
2. Dawn French (French and Saunders, Vicar of Dibley)
3. Roger Lloyd-Pack, Trigger (Only Fools and Horses)
4. Jarvis Cocker (Pulp)

These were mostly cameos, and many of the main roles were her choices too (no doubt also from her favourite shows/films). Rickman and Thompson you could see her loving them from Sense and Sensibility (arguably the best adaptation from Rowling’s favourite author), Richard Griffiths from Withnail and I, Julie Walters from Educating Rita, Bonham Carter from her period roles, Fiennes as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, and on and on.

HP wasn’t just her creation, the film series adds an even more personal touch. Can’t think of another film series that comes remotely close to being as personal to an individual as HP is to JK Rowling. It’s completely her world. A special on HP is akin to having a special on The Beatles and inviting everyone on it except Paul McCartney.

@NameChanged15729

She is transphobic and I don’t blame the cast at all for wanting to distance themselves from her.

What an interesting assertion - I'm sure you can provide direct quotes to prove it @NameChanged15729?

No ..?
Just parroting other misinformed bigots who jumped on the Woke Wagon?
Thought so.

Just googled this. Various press articles on this. It was her choice apparently not to feature in the special or record any new interview for it. She was mentioned apparently ten times. Why she chose not be involved it doesn’t say - the controversy though over trans issues and her and various of the cast members is well known obviously.
I’m not sure the show should be taken to task for not giving her more of a spot light if it’s a project she actively declined to be part of. Like the Friends show, my dislike of it was more that it was all a bit dull really than anything else though.

Given that JRK has received 'enough rape and death threats to paper her house', it would have taken so little for those actors in the Harry Potter franchise who have denounced her to say 'I disagree with her but the threats she has been subjected to are unacceptable'.

They haven't. The fact they continue to make statements about her supposed transphobic views while not mentioning the appalling abuse she has received comes across as condoning that abuse.

Burn the witch, right?

@housemaus

I dunno, I think YABU. JKR wrote the books and has been lauded the world over for it - this was about the films, the creation of them, etc.

You wouldn't expect a cast & crew reunion of the Alien films to gush about Dan O'Bannon, would you? No, it's Ridley Scott and James Cameron - the people who made the films from the source material. Nobody gets all the Marvel comic writers into the behind the scenes chats with the Avengers etc films - it's about making of the films themselves, not the source material per se.

It wasn't the existence of the books that made the younger actors famous: it was the film adaptations.

So for that reason YABU.

It would be very perverse to have a documentary about the making of the LOTR and Hobbit films with no mention of J. R. R. Tolkien or Narnia without C. S. Lewis or Discworld without Terry Pratchett or Game of Thrones without George R. R. Martin. In all those cases the books were enormously successful before there were film/TV adaptations. The same goes for Harry Potter. I had no idea the Alien films were even based on a book before I saw your post.

@YesIReallyHave

As an aside she was invited to take part and declined. I don't blame her given how's she's been treated, but not the same as excluded.

Oh, you know that for a fact? I've not seen this reported anywhere.

The last month or so people have been saying she shouldn't be in it because she had little to do with the films and yet had lots of creative control inc the representation of goblins and filming at Australia House.

OP You say that she wasn't mentioned. I don't know cos I haven't watched it. There are others disputing you. If they are right and she was mentioned lots, surely she would have had lots of interactions about the films/characters etc with the cast/crew/production company when they were made? Therefore, she should have been included just on that basis. For me though, Queen JK is an integral part of of the story and it feels wrong to not have had her there.

It was quite widely reported - a quick google could have told you this.

An invitation was extended to Rowling to participate, but her team determined the archived comments from the writer were adequate, EW has learned.

ew.com/movies/why-j-k-rowling-didnt-join-harry-potter-reunion-special-return-to-hogwarts/

www.cbr.com/harry-potter-jk-rowling-declined-reunion-invitation/

To say they “betrayed” her or are “disloyal” is silly
Accusing someone of transphobia without evidence is both a betrayal & disloyal @wintersdreams

The actors started out this journey as children but they are now adults who are all informed enough to have an opinion
But they're not informed opinions, are they?
They are a trumped up accusation, with no foundation in fact.
Being adults doesn't make their opinion correct.

Just because their opinion disagrees with your own doesn’t make them weak or disloyal.
It's astonishingly weak to parrot lies about someone just because you are scared of falling foul of a woke agenda.

@IcedPurple

I hit YABU by accident, but of course you absolutely are not being U.

Those posh twits would be nobody without J K Rowling. And they know it. Or do they?

@IcedPurple You can change your vote.

@DrSbaitso

Daniel Radcliffe has never disappointed me in anything. I've thought he was shite since Film 1. Emma Watson is even worse.

Did anyone see the screen tests of the other little boy who was almost cast as Harry, whose name escapes me? He was so good. What were they thinking?

Apparently Radcliffe's mother was a casting agent. Possibly that was a factor.

She was invited to participate in the show but declined to.

If she’d wanted to be in it, they probably would have focussed on her a bit more.

I don't think noone mentioned her it's how they chose to edit it. There will be hours of unused footage. It's ridiculous though I agree.

@Snugglepumpkin

JK Rowling has created something that will provide jobs for people in this country for decades if not far longer.

Look at the legacy of similar creations & see how they add to the economy as well as the cultural wealth of this country.

Beatrix Potter & her world.
Tolkein & his.
Mark Baker & Neville Astley (think you don't know them? They created Peppa Pig)
A A Milne - Winnie the Pooh
Andrew Lloyd Webber - so many musicals
Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen there's many more.

These creations year after year bring tourists to the country & have massive retail sales worldwide (Peppa Pig generates over a billion a year all on it's lonesome)

She has added to the treasure chest of British creativity & this benefits the whole country.
Creativity is one of the few things this country still 'manufactures'.

Now, I've phrased that badly because I am not a financial expert but there would be no massively profitable 20th Anniversary Reunion without her.
Not a one of those people would have been paid a penny, not one of those actors would have become household names for being part of her creation, the people behind the cameras would have been looking for other jobs, the people making licenced merchandise, spin offs etc... would have been spending that money elsewhere.

I know, not all the money comes to the UK but if you are a British actor, surely you've noticed that these parts are some of the few where you don't have to always be the stuck up baddie who gets defeated by the plucky American & that isn't some obscure British film that doesn't do as well as a Hollywood Blockbuster.

My brain isn't working today & I can't think how to put this eloquently but this woman created a new sport that is played across the world.
A NEW SPORT, just as an aside while doing something else.

JK Rowling is a national treasure & she is STILL WRITING.
STILL producing more & just as nobody could predict how big Harry Potter would become, you don't know if she will go on to create something that eclipses that creation.

I don't personally even like her books but I can respect her success & see that many other people do.

The fact that she does all this while actually having the personal integrity to stand up for what she believes in when it would be so easy for her to just take the money & sit back is even better.
She also does that while NOT actually hurting transpeople no matter how offended some people may feel.
She could.
She could write terrible things, create characters who belittle anyone different & because of who she is it would get out to the world but she doesn't ever do that.

Of course she should have been in the show.
It couldn't exist without her.

Britain has long been the powerhouse of children’s literature (really since Alice in Wonderland birthed the entire industry).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_literature#National_traditions

Disney has the “English cycle” of films (really it should have been called “British cycle” as it includes Peter Pan and Treasure Island from Scottish authors). Disney studios based 15 films on British stories, from Jack and the Beanstalk to Bedknobs and Broomsticks to the Jungle Book and the 101 Dalmatians.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Walt_Disney_Animation_Studios_films

Not only did JK Rowling hit the nail in the head. She is an inspiration to women. She has more talent in her little finger than all of the so-called actors combined. I mean what are the actually famous for since Harry Potter. They just happened to look like the characters in the books. On the talent front, not much going on.

Wow, I posted without reading the full thread.

I’m sorry but this J K Rowling martyrdom is getting a bit crazy.

Last week it was her fans saying that the Guardian has rigged a vote, that didn’t exist, to prevent her from winning an award, that didn’t exist.

This week it’s anger that she wasn’t more involved in the reunion special - after she declined to be in it.

Nuts.

@IcedPurple

I hit YABU by accident, but of course you absolutely are not being U.

Those posh twits would be nobody without J K Rowling. And they know it. Or do they?

You can change your vote, I’ve done it before when I hit the wrong option by mistake.

@Snugglepumpkin

JK Rowling has created something that will provide jobs for people in this country for decades if not far longer.

Look at the legacy of similar creations & see how they add to the economy as well as the cultural wealth of this country.

Beatrix Potter & her world.
Tolkein & his.
Mark Baker & Neville Astley (think you don't know them? They created Peppa Pig)
A A Milne - Winnie the Pooh
Andrew Lloyd Webber - so many musicals
Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen there's many more.

These creations year after year bring tourists to the country & have massive retail sales worldwide (Peppa Pig generates over a billion a year all on it's lonesome)

She has added to the treasure chest of British creativity & this benefits the whole country.
Creativity is one of the few things this country still 'manufactures'.

Now, I've phrased that badly because I am not a financial expert but there would be no massively profitable 20th Anniversary Reunion without her.
Not a one of those people would have been paid a penny, not one of those actors would have become household names for being part of her creation, the people behind the cameras would have been looking for other jobs, the people making licenced merchandise, spin offs etc... would have been spending that money elsewhere.

I know, not all the money comes to the UK but if you are a British actor, surely you've noticed that these parts are some of the few where you don't have to always be the stuck up baddie who gets defeated by the plucky American & that isn't some obscure British film that doesn't do as well as a Hollywood Blockbuster.

My brain isn't working today & I can't think how to put this eloquently but this woman created a new sport that is played across the world.
A NEW SPORT, just as an aside while doing something else.

JK Rowling is a national treasure & she is STILL WRITING.
STILL producing more & just as nobody could predict how big Harry Potter would become, you don't know if she will go on to create something that eclipses that creation.

I don't personally even like her books but I can respect her success & see that many other people do.

The fact that she does all this while actually having the personal integrity to stand up for what she believes in when it would be so easy for her to just take the money & sit back is even better.
She also does that while NOT actually hurting transpeople no matter how offended some people may feel.
She could.
She could write terrible things, create characters who belittle anyone different & because of who she is it would get out to the world but she doesn't ever do that.

Of course she should have been in the show.
It couldn't exist without her.

Completely agree. The woman is a powerhouse. A true British icon. Daniel who and Emma what’s name will be a footnote in history compared to what JK has achieved.

Then again, for many of us, the only reason we haven't completely gone off the HP universe is the fact that at least they've distanced themselves from JKR...

@TheHamburgler

Wow, I posted without reading the full thread.

I’m sorry but this J K Rowling martyrdom is getting a bit crazy.

Last week it was her fans saying that the Guardian has rigged a vote, that didn’t exist, to prevent her from winning an award, that didn’t exist.

This week it’s anger that she wasn’t more involved in the reunion special - after she declined to be in it.

Nuts.

I'm staring to despair of the recent strains of GC activism on MN. I owe my GC position to MN from several years back (I've been here since 2012) and integrity seems to have declined somewhat.

Recently the rigour and critical thinking seems to have gone out of the window. The behaviour I see from many posters, ready to believe anything anyone says and go totally overboard with it regardless of whether it is actually true, reminds me more of ignorant Twitter TRAs than intelligent feminists.

Whatever happened to "when they go low, we go high"?

An invitation was extended to Rowling to participate, but her team determined the archived comments from the writer were adequate, EW has learned.

@Lockheart the second link quotes the first link and the first link doesn't really say where they got the information from. I can't imagine her team talking. However, she probably did decline - I wouldn't want to make nice with them either. But we will never know for sure. The fact that both HBO and JKR are silent on this means they probably quietly reached a legal agreement about it all.

JK Rowling is HP. Every bit of it owes itself to her . She magnificent and those actors are pathetic .