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 – the very talented actor set to don the greasy black wig and scowl his way into our hearts as Severus Snape in HBO’s new “Harry Potter” reboot.
Here’s 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 Harry’s 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, “I prefer tea to coffee” opinions — more like, “Let me unleash a 14-paragraph monologue about the fall of civilization via trans rights” energy.
She fired off with:
“Nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex…”
Okay, first of all, calm down, Professor Umbridge. And second of all, if we’re talking about fantasy, didn’t 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 “elitist badge of virtue” and “foundational lie of their religion,” 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 — fear of “angry narcissistic men,” “back-stabbing colleagues,” and “online shamers and doxxers,” 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 — not the marginalized communities being, you know, marginalized.
Oh, and in case you missed it: this isn’t the first time a Harry Potter actor has spoken out against Rowling’s views. At this point, it’s less of a franchise and more of a group chat called “Disagreeing with J.K. Rowling” 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. These…
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 3, 2025