As part of a slew of announcements by HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery for the new Max streaming lineup, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight was confirmed to be greenlit. Martin and Ira Parker will write and executive produce the spinoff series. House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal will also executive produce alongside Vince Gerardis.
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"A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros. A young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall (aka Dunk), and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends."
Max has ordered a new Harry Potter TV series with a ten-year commitment, planning to adapt all the books. This follows rumors that HBO had plans for a Harry Potter reboot. Author J.K. Rowling will serve as an executive producer along with Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts. In the announcement from HBO, the company said, "Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally."
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Last edited by GreenLantern; 04-12-2023 at 10:23 PM.
JK is very supportive of trans rights and has very progressive opinions across the board, the main part she isn't on board with is the idea that she is obligated to consider them as 100% women. The only people that have a problem with this is a very tiny, very vocal minority with shared extreme political opinions.
The only people that were hurt from the backlash to the video game were left-leaning, small-time content creators who decided to check the game out. They were the only people that could be hurt by the backlash and hurt they were. Lots of young women driven to tears and quitting streaming.
JK is very supportive of trans rights and has very progressive opinions across the board, the main part she isn't on board with is the idea that she is obligated to consider them as 100% women. The only people that have a problem with this is a very tiny, very vocal minority with shared extreme political opinions.
The only people that were hurt from the backlash to the video game were left-leaning, small-time content creators who decided to check the game out. They were the only people that could be hurt by the backlash and hurt they were. Lots of young women driven to tears and quitting streaming.
Rowling writes The Silkworm, the second novel in the Cormoran Strike mystery series, which involves a trans woman who is portrayed as conspicuous and unable to pass. The book includes a scene where the main character gleefully threatens this character with prison rape.
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October 2017:
Rowling “likes” a tweet linking to a controversial, since-deleted Medium article referring to a theoretical trans woman in a female space as “a stranger with a penis.” While liking a tweet might seem small, this is notable because the piece made the basic argument Rowling continues to make today, namely that trans women are by default part of a “male-bodied” group who are dangerous to women and who should not have access to women’s bathrooms. In the public sphere, this kicks off questions about whether Rowling is anti-trans, which are followed by the author entrenching further.
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2018:
In March, Rowling “likes” (and then unlikes) a tweet referring to trans women as “men in dresses” and implying that trans rights are “misogyny.” A JKR spokesperson later claims that this “like” was an accident and that Rowling was having “a middle-aged moment.”
In September, Rowling “likes” a tweet linking to an opinion column by known TERF Janice Turner, which argues yet again that trans women are inherently sexual predators, referring to them as “fox[es] in a henhouse ... identify[ing] as [hens].” The myth that trans women are a danger to cis women is a grossly transphobic stereotype with almost no real-world justification, but Rowling pins most of her anti-trans arguments on it, using her experience as a survivor of domestic abuse to justify her prejudice.
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December 2019:
In a shift toward openly voicing her anti-trans sentiments, Rowling vocally supports the plaintiff of an employment discrimination suit in the UK. Maya Forstater became a cause célèbre in the TERF community after suing the company that chose not to renew her contract. In 2018, Forstater posted numerous anti-trans tweets, both generalizing about trans people and directly targeting one nonbinary person. The tweets made staff members at her company uncomfortable, and ultimately, in March 2019, the organization declined to renew Forstater’s contract. Rowling’s tweet, in which she distorts trans identity and the facts of the case, marks the first time many people become aware of her growing transphobic tendencies.
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June 2020:
In a tweet, Rowling mocks the trans-inclusive phrase “people who menstruate” in an article about pandemic menstrual health, implying that the phrase, meant to encompass trans men and nonbinary people, erases, overrides, or obscures the word “women.”
In a follow-up to the previous tweet and the backlash it spawned, Rowling posts a thread implying that trans activists are “erasing the concept of [biological] sex” and along with it “the lived reality of women.” She also states, “I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans.” (To date, she has not.)
Days later, Rowling produces her most overt and lengthy discussion of her views, a 3,600-word manifesto published on her website responding to “the new trans activism.” The post is replete with myths and false transphobic stereotypes, particularly revolving around the narratives that gender and biology are inextricable and that trans women are dangerous. Rowling states the movement offers “cover to predators”. She also repeatedly amplifies the alarmist, false idea that teens are transitioning as part of a social media trend, a claim based on a handful of inaccurate and shady scientific studies claiming that an outsize number of trans teens will detransition later, studies that have since been widely debunked.
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August 2020:
After the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization issues a statement repudiating her transphobia, Rowling doubles down on her position and returns an award given to her by the org in 2019.
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September 2020:
Rowling releases the Cormoran Strike book Troubled Blood and is widely criticized after she creates a villain who preys on women by wearing women’s clothes. This is exactly the specter of a sexual predator that Rowling believes hides behind the label of “trans woman.”
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December 2020:
In an interview with Good Housekeeping, Rowling claims that “90 percent” of Harry Potter fans secretly agree with her anti-trans views, but that “many are afraid to speak up because they fear for their jobs and even for their personal safety.” This once again stereotypes trans activists as an angry, entitled, and vicious mob.
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July 2021: Rowling tweets a screenshot of a tiny account — reportedly with around 200 followers at the time — of a self-identified trans user who mentions her in a tweet discussing gender identity. Since Rowling did not remove the trans user’s information in the screenshot that went out to her 14 million followers, that user is subsequently inundated with transphobic harassment and ultimately deletes their Twitter account.
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November 2021:
Rowling publicizes that a group of three trans people shared a photo of themselves holding protest signs outside of her house, saying that she had called the police out of alarm (a fact Scottish police also verified). Rowling claims that these protesters had “doxxed” her, and the media runs with this report, which plays into the larger evolving media narrative of Rowling as a victim of trans harassment. But as many people have pointed out, Rowling’s address is publicly known — so well-known, in fact, that it is a frequent fan tour stop. Police later officially state there is “no criminality” in what the trans protesters had done.
As trans culture vlogger Jessie Earl points out, trans people themselves are at much higher risk of experiencing doxxing, bullying, and harassment than cisgender people. Earl also notes that Rowling has supported and platformed (through Twitter likes, follows, and retweets) multiple TERFs who had themselves doxxed other people, including Marion Millar, who faced criminal charges for homophobically doxxing a police officer (though those charges were dropped pending review); Rosie Duffield, an MP who drew criticism for “publicly outing” a staff member who resigned over her transphobia; and Rosa Freedman, a professor who doxxed a student who emailed her requesting a chat about her views on trans equality.
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December 2021:
Rowling shares a Sunday Times article that mocks the Scottish police for recognizing transgender identity. In her tweet, she parodies 1984, writing, “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.”
Later that month, in the middle of a thread ostensibly attempting to support trans equality, Rowling tweets, “The question at the heart of this debate is whether sex or gender identity should form the basis of decisions on safeguarding, provision of services, sporting categories and other areas where women and girls currently have legal rights and protections.” The idea behind what Rowling is saying is that allowing trans women equal access to those spaces will erode current legal rights for cisgender women and girls. This is a position that only makes sense if you are denying that trans women and girls are women and girls. Rowling then adds an insistence on separating “sex” from “gender,” an essentialist idea that contradicts current medical practice and scientific research, which advocates for treating gender identity as linked primarily to the brain, not anatomy.
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March 2022:
In response to a since-deleted tweet (which was itself a reply to a tweet in which Rowling implied trans women were “predators”), Rowling tweets about a sexual assault committed by a trans woman, using this single incident to imply that all trans women should be denied access to public spaces designated for women.
The next day, on International Women’s Day, Rowling posts a series of tweets maligning gender-inclusive language and mockingly referencing Voldemort by sarcastically opining that the day in future would be known as “She Who Must Not Be Named Day.” She also explicitly criticizes gender-inclusive legislation.
Later that month, British lawyer Alison Bailey partially wins an employment discrimination lawsuit in which she claimed that she was discriminated against because of her gender-essentialist views. While the lawsuit was in progress, Rowling posted a tweet urging her followers to financially support Bailey.
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August 2022:
Rowling’s latest Cormoran Strike book, The Ink Black Heart, once again comes under fire for transphobia because of its depiction of a character broadly viewable as a satirical stand-in for Rowling herself — an anti-trans public figure who is “canceled” by the internet on trumped-up charges of transphobia and then killed.
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December 2022:
Rowling screencaps a thread about the controversial new Hogwarts Legacy video game by the aforementioned popular transgender YouTuber Jessie Earl, a.k.a. Jessie Gender. Earl points out that supporting the franchise would “justify her continued targeting of trans people”; Rowling, in response, sarcastically accuses Earl of practicing “purethink,” implying trans advocacy is a type of religious dogma. An onslaught of transphobic social media harassment targeting Earl follows.
This month, Rowling also personally funds a new domestic violence support center in Edinburgh, Scotland, which explicitly excludes trans women; Rowling frames this new center as offering “women-centered and women-delivered care.” Edinburgh’s longstanding domestic violence support center has had a trans woman as its director since 2021. Trans women, in particular women of color, are at a vastly higher risk of experiencing domestic violence and sexual assault than cisgender women.
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January 2023:
Rowling tweets that she is “Deeply amused by those telling me I’ve lost their admiration due to the disrespect I show violent, duplicitous rapists.” The most immediate context for this comment is presumably both the backlash to Hogwarts Legacy and the ongoing backlash over Rowling’s views writ large regarding trans women being dangerous predators. So a reasonable implication of Rowling’s words seems to be that she considers trans women, by default, to be “violent, duplicitous rapists.”
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March 2023:
A new podcast, The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, produced by Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and hosted by prominent former Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-Roper, featured interviews with Rowling. In its fifth episode, Rowling begins discussing the modern trans rights movement, calling it “a cultural movement that was illiberal in its methods and questionable in its ideas” and insisting, “I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement and that it must be challenged.”
She then compares the movement to Death Eaters — the villainous supremacists in her books, analogous to Nazis:
[S]ome of you have not understood the books. The Death Eaters claimed, “We have been made to live in secret, and now is our time, and any who stand in our way must be destroyed. If you disagree with us, you must die.” They demonized and dehumanized those who were not like them.
I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious, misogynistic movement, that has gained huge purchase in very influential areas of society. I do not see this particular movement as either benign or powerless, so I’m afraid I stand with the women who are fighting to be heard against threats of loss of livelihood and threats to their safety.
While Rowling can say she only intends to target the specific trans activists who are angry at her, that’s an impossible distinction. She does not mention any formal group or entity that represents trans rights that has acted against her. The only context we have for what she is responding to are non-affiliated individuals on Twitter sending angry messages in response to her transphobic comments. Indeed, the episode is titled “The Tweets” and features Phelps-Roper reading angry and sad tweets from former fans of Rowling. This generalization doesn’t distinguish “the movement” from people who are simply angry and upset with Rowling. Instead, it seems to imply that “good” trans people are the ones who accept Rowling’s version of their identity and allow her viewpoint — that they aren’t who they say they are — to dominate their fight for social acceptance.
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Later that month, in the middle of a thread ostensibly attempting to support trans equality, Rowling tweets, “The question at the heart of this debate is whether sex or gender identity should form the basis of decisions on safeguarding, provision of services, sporting categories and other areas where women and girls currently have legal rights and protections.” The idea behind what Rowling is saying is that allowing trans women equal access to those spaces will erode current legal rights for cisgender women and girls. This is a position that only makes sense if you are denying that trans women and girls are women and girls. Rowling then adds an insistence on separating “sex” from “gender,” an essentialist idea that contradicts current medical practice and scientific research, which advocates for treating gender identity as linked primarily to the brain, not anatomy.
That right there sums the whole thing up... that is the position that Rowling espouses about trans women and the entire core of the controversy about her. Whatever you think about that position dictates what you think about Rowling.
The rest of the summary is kind of secondary - basically, the people who support Rowling are the people who agree with what she wrote in that paragraph, and as a result, see her as being in the right in respect of every other item chronicled in that article. Anyone who agrees with the author of the article will see her as being in the wrong in respect of every other item.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Last edited by CorsiHockeyLeague; 04-12-2023 at 07:23 PM.
Ok so I edited out my original comment, I am not apologizing for it by any means, but I'd rather just keep this thread on track. Didn't mean to attract the wrong attention, but looking back at it I should have realized it would.
Anyway, hey 10 seasons of Harry Potter, that sounds great to me. My boy is huge on Harry Potter and I feel like a TV series will be a great format for filling in a lot of the stuff that the movies had to leave out.
10 Seasons is legit to, that will give them extra buffer room to do it all proper.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
Yeah, I think everyone was waiting to see how Hogwarts Legacy performed to see if the Rowling Anti-Trans Hysteria was just a vocal online minority or something that might actually affect the franchise.
Now it's full steam ahead on Harry Potter everything.
I disagree with your framing, but I agree Capitalism is going to Capitalism.
I don't think it's fair to say it's 'just an online thing' when Trans folks are under direct attack from various state legislators. but what do I know, I'm part of a minority woke movement.
At any rate I'm mad I now have to watch Blades (assuming it gets made)
A 10 season order is pretty crazy. They better hope none of the main stars go off the rails.
Yes casting is going to be very tricky for this, but the most important part of it all. They just absolutely nailed it with the movies. But also were able to adapt on the fly as needed.. so I guess there is that. Hopefully they bring the same casting team back.
I really hope they take their time, don't rush this out. Hopefully HBO paid up front as WB is hurting for the cash..
Everyone make sure to go see Flash if you love Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings ... lol.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
That right there sums the whole thing up... that is the position that Rowling espouses about trans women and the entire core of the controversy about her. Whatever you think about that position dictates what you think about Rowling.
The rest of the summary is kind of secondary - basically, the people who support Rowling are the people who agree with what she wrote in that paragraph, and as a result, see her as being in the right in respect of every other item chronicled in that article. Anyone who agrees with the author of the article will see her as being in the wrong in respect of every other item.
Man. I get re-making a movie here and there. But an entire 7 book series?
The movies as is are a pretty wonderful adaptation. Just do some prequels or sequels or something. I'm prime Harry Potter age, and I don't need another look, personally.
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The movies did a good job of editing the books for Rowling. No publisher on earth was going to chop 90,000+ words out of a Rowling manuscript by the time book four came around.
There's a ton of content that never made it to screen, but how much of it was minutiae? (I can't remember). Having Rowling herself onboard as a show runner is quite significant in that she can add to and fill in the story herself instead of relying on a David Benioff/DB Weiss archetype.
The movies did a good job of editing the books for Rowling. No publisher on earth was going to chop 90,000+ words out of a Rowling manuscript by the time book four came around.
There's a ton of content that never made it to screen, but how much of it was minutiae? (I can't remember). Having Rowling herself onboard as a show runner is quite significant in that she can add to and fill in the story herself instead of relying on a David Benioff/DB Weiss archetype.
I’m not sure the lore made sense without the books. Examples being why Harry’s sacrifice worked, the wand lore stuff, the entire department of mysteries / prophecy in the fifth book.
I found the movies were just checking off plot boxes after the first 3.
Now I had read the books first and don’t know anyone who watches the movies first so don’t really know if they made sense as movies.
I think that TV will be a good medium though Rowling I wish was kept away from it as I don’t think she has anything interesting left to say in the universe.
The movies did a good job of editing the books for Rowling. No publisher on earth was going to chop 90,000+ words out of a Rowling manuscript by the time book four came around.
There's a ton of content that never made it to screen, but how much of it was minutiae? (I can't remember). Having Rowling herself onboard as a show runner is quite significant in that she can add to and fill in the story herself instead of relying on a David Benioff/DB Weiss archetype.
The only thing I remember being disappointed by in the movies was the lack of Quidditch in #5? and how Harry/Ginny's romance was dealt with. It was much better in the books and the movies took a lot of agency away from Ginny as a character.
Otherwise I thought most pertinent stuff was included. I can see how have a season/book could be good (if each season was like 6-8 episodes). 10 seasons seems a bit crazy to me.
Yeah I was pretty disappointed with Ginny in the movies vs the books.. Luna was different too though I think I like movie version better. Snape was somewhat different, not sure which I liked better (Rickman killed it tho).
10 seasons of TV could be good for a retelling, lots of room for the deep character development.. but somehow I think it's just going to end up with lots more funny magical things filling in the same amount of plot as the movies. Hey look at this plant, it's it crazy??
There could be so many other stories to tell, but I guess it could be good for a whole new generation.
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