Well well well, if it isn’t J.K. Rowling once again casting Expelliarmus on any goodwill she had left in the Room of Requirement. This time, her magical target? Paapa Essiedu โ the very talented actor set to don the greasy black wig and scowl his way into our hearts as Severus Snape in HBOโs new “Harry Potter” reboot.
Hereโs the tea: after the UK Supreme Court recently declared that trans women are not legally considered women (yes, in 2025, we’re still stuck on that), a bunch of Hogwarts alumni and magical adjacent folks signed an open letter standing up for the trans community. Among them were Eddie “Newt Scamander” Redmayne, Katie “I’m more than just Harryโs crush” Leung, and the aforementioned Paapa “Snape with a conscience” Essiedu.
Enter: J.K. Rowling, stage far-right.
Taking to her digital Howler (aka X, formerly known as Twitter but still known for drama), J.K. had opinions. And not like, โI prefer tea to coffeeโ opinions โ more like, โLet me unleash a 14-paragraph monologue about the fall of civilization via trans rightsโ energy.
She fired off with:
โNobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sexโฆโ
Okay, first of all, calm down, Professor Umbridge. And second of all, if weโre talking about fantasy, didnโt you literally write a story where a dude turns into a rat for 12 years? But sure, gender transition is where you draw the line.
She kept going, like a Quidditch match with no snitch in sight, accusing these actors of “boosting a movement” that she claims is out to destroy women’s rights, scare the gays, sterilize kids (??), and summon Voldemort back from the dead or something. Honestly, we lost track somewhere between โelitist badge of virtueโ and โfoundational lie of their religion,โ which frankly sounds like a deleted line from a Death Eater recruitment ad.
Rowling also suggested that actors who sign these kinds of letters are just doing it out of career fear. You know โ fear of โangry narcissistic men,โ โback-stabbing colleagues,โ and โonline shamers and doxxers,โ which ironically sounds like every character in Slytherin House.
She rounded it off with a subtle-as-a-Bludger-to-the-head rant about “draconian authoritarianism,” because clearly she’s the real underdog here โ not the marginalized communities being, you know, marginalized.
Oh, and in case you missed it: this isnโt the first time a Harry Potter actor has spoken out against Rowlingโs views. At this point, itโs less of a franchise and more of a group chat called โDisagreeing with J.K. Rowlingโ that just keeps adding new members every week.
Stay tuned for the next episode of The Wizarding War: Twitter Edition, where moral courage meets magical copyright ownership in a battle of wands vs. words.
In light of recent open letters from academia and the arts criticising the UK's Supreme Court ruling on sex-based rights, it's possibly worth remembering that nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex, or that binary sex isn't a material fact. Theseโฆ
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 3, 2025