Television ‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell

[Rockhopper1]

Stuart Heritage has scribbled a ridiculous and slightly threatening article for the Guardian today under the above headline Such wilful misrepresentation of JK Rowling’s views after all this time can surely only be fuelled by misogyny?

I honestly don’t think the actors will receive much blowback at all. Maybe for a day or two and only if they are on blue sky where I am sure everyone is getting their knickers in a twist.
if you are not in a liberal lefty echo chamber you literally won’t see anything at all.
Twitter won’t care ( maybe they will hate the new HP because its too woke!)
I haven’t seen any of this drama except here in mumsnet as I am on neither blue sky or Twitter and I am probably in the vast majority. My sister didn’t even know they were remaking HP let alone any drama about the actors.

I don’t watch the new Dr Who because it’s rubbish. That’s the sole reason

I definitely don’t agree with Joanne Harris on gender issues, but her books are wonderful so I read them repeatedly.

read the article. It’s mean spirited and comes from a place of ‘all the right people disagree with JKR (while simultaneously not being able to say what her views on women’s rights are)’

We shall see how well the new series does. The books and games are still selling incredibly well. The films get streamed a lot. When the Harry Potter movies were licensed to Netflix in 2023, all shot into the streamer’s top 10 most-watched chart.

However as it will be found on a streaming platform HBO Max that is a barrier. A key element though is where as recent offerings from Marvel/Star Wars have issues in some parts of the world Harry Potter is hugely popular in Asian markets in particular. If young kids love watching it the popularity will be insane. Anyone who remembers the films will know.

A production executive doesn't necessarily mean producing anything, it can be financial support.

Whether JKR is taking an active role or not, the point is that in film/television/stage, all the right 'ingredients' are not a guarantor of success.

History is littered with productions that had a stellar cast, distinguished directors, successful screenwriters etc. and had a lukewarm reception or flopped completely. There can be a lack of freshness in productions that are extensively curated in this way.

I might be totally wrong, this might turn out to be the defining TV series of the 21st Century, but I have an instinct that it won't. I have no axe to grind against JKR or her opinions - I don't think, unlike the author of the Guardian piece, that JKR's opinions are likely to affect viewing figures to any significant degree - but the time has passed for a HP TV series to be a resounding success.

I’d agree I think there will be a lot of frothing and as screaming online and some noisy protests and public burnings of all that is Harry Potter for the media.

There will be responses from the gender critical crowd because we’ve learnt if you give an inch they take a mile whilst simultaneously being the most marginalised victimised people that ever there was.

Meanehile lots of people will just watch the show as it’ll, probably, be quite good. Next lots of kids will get the books. JKR will get richer and continue to do good works and the world will spin on.

I suspect the smart thing to do would be just minimise social media and wait it out. An endless pile on with no interaction will eventually just die it’s own death. I think the sting had gone out of being called a transphobic bigot as that just seems to mean how dare you not agree with absolutely everything I say these days.

For a novelist who has a book adapted for TV/film, a producer credit means more money, it doesn't mean they actually have any input. It's what you get if you have a good agent.

I hope Katherine Parkinson has a great time on set and makes lots of money.

Heritage and his clickbait will be forgotten by the end of the week

This article is written with the presumption that anyone other than a small lunatic fringe will care about "trans" issues in a few year's time. I am pretty sure they won't. HP on the other hand...(I am not particularly a fan but can see that its not going away anywhere soon, it has already resonated with several diferent cohorts of children in a rapidly changing world).

The whole gender nonsense issue will be seen as outdated and regressive, cringeworthy and unsavoury within a few years, and dealt with as a mental health issue. This writer seems like a real prat. And he doesn't once explain what JKR has said or done "wrong". He mentions her "views" without saying what he means. Stuart, I wouldn't be so sure that the people of the future will be as misogynistic and ridiculous as you are. Let's hope not anyway.

The idea that JKR would let her name be put down as an executive producer but not make sure she had some level of oversight or creative sign off is ridiculous.

No idea what Heritage thought he was going to achieve with that pointless, nasty article, that as pp say does not adequately explain what it is he is even on his high horse about and misrepresents JKR completely.

Seems like the sort of thing only written as a starting point for a bunfight in the comments, but of course they won’t allow that.

Can only hope JKR’s penning a Twitter riposte to wipe the smug, self-satisfied smirk off his face as we speak. More power to Katherine Parkinson and everyone putting up with this moronic shit.

What a nasty, mean-spirited article by someone who is clearly jealous as hell of JK Rowling.

Bloody hell. The question is whether Stuart painstakingly tracks down the political and sociological views of every author he’s ever read. Does he - gasp - like a Weinstein film? How about admiring past filmmakers that turn out to have been involved in egregious acts? And there are many of those. Or is it just this one single female that you’d like us to turn against because… she actively supports women’s rights.

Do men like Stuart ever stop for a nanosecond to consider how articles such as this adds to silencing women for speaking out on women’s rights. No, I didn’t think so. Too busy being like other virtue signalling men showing us their, IMO, misogynistic underbellies.

Well, unless you know her personally, you've got no idea what she is or isn't doing. I'm simply stating the fact that an exec producer credit for a novelist doesn't automatically mean they have any control over anything (and whether they do or not is also clearly stated in the contract), therefore a novelist doesn't need any TV production skills to be a producer.

It's got plenty of comments elsewhere, though, hasn't it, all of which will drive traffic to the guardian, which is presumably the real point of the article.

True, Cabbageheads but it would be nice if they had the guts to stand by it and take it directly on their own website, rather than farm it out to where they don’t have to moderate and can pretend they don’t see the other side.

Rather than the cast being ‘outed’ as Rowling supporters, people who write this kind of drivel should be embarrassed to out themselves as misogynist wankers with no critical thinking skills whatsoever.

I've never heard of Stuart Heritage but it sounds like he's pissing into the wind.

IMO many of the men who write this nonsense just don't like women who won't bow to the male gaze and choose instead to centre other women. It these women have found financial success through their own hard slog then that's even more reason to deride them.

It must be horrible to be as misogynistic and bitter as Stuart and his ilk instead of enjoying life.

I've been waiting for a new Harry Potter for years, so we can put those bad CGI ridden shit films to rest. A whole new generation will not know who the fuck Danial Radcliff, Emma Watson et al are and people can stop acting like they are the definitive Harry Potter cast. Looking forward to the extra detail that the films could never contain. I hope they do it well.

I remember years ago when I liked to read the grauniad that Stuart Heritage had a column about his experiences of being a first time father. It was one of the most man-splainiest things I have ever seen and I marvelled at the time that some people actually get paid for writing such drivel (although I seem to remember he moaned about his pay not being enough). I see he’s not changed.

What was that on another thread where research showed "progressive activists" over estimate by a factor of 2 to 3 the number of people who share their views?

I was fully expecting the 2012 Olympics to be shit, because the Guardian had been sneering for months that London couldn't cope, the Tube would implode, the Opening Ceremony would be unwatchable cringe, it would all be a damp squib because nobody really likes sport anyway, and cheering on British athletes is just awfully colonial etc etc.

They really do only write for a select minority.

My 10 year old is incredibly excited about this programme. I'm looking forward to us watching it together. Other than reading it to the kids I haven't read Harry Potter since it first came out but I do remember finding the films quite annoying for leaving out some of my favourite bits so I think the TV series will be great if it properly captures lots of the material that couldn't be in the films. The films were being made as the books were being written too, so were rather operating in the dark on narrative development, although I remember that JKR gave them some steers on what bits they would need to include for storyline purposes.

I think we have some fantastic TV right now and it's eclipsing film in many ways, so this feels like the right medium.

Stu Heritage is a tedious man who hasn't produced any content of actual merit that I've ever read. He seems the epitome of white middle class male privilege to have the career he does to be honest.

Yes, it would be nice to see that. I had the same thought about the stupid 'letter' they featured a few weeks ago in which an anonymous, allegedly female writer said she used the men's toilet all the time and never had a problem, so she couldn't see the issue with cross dressing men in the female toilet.

It was just begging for someone to say well surely if you're safe in the men's, cross dressing men are safe in there too?

In the meantime JKR is so reviled that despite giving away over £250m to charities she’s become a billionaire again

And Stu, who has correct opinions, is reduced to writing clickbait for the Guardian

sad times