Rowling Celebrated for Heroism on ‘National Transgender Day of Visibility’

March 31, 2026 by Leave a Comment

The last day of March, the day before April Fools, is now set aside as ‘National Transgender Day of Visibility.’ This year the Supreme Court of the United States marked 31 March with a near unanimous decision in Chiles vs Salazar (!) that a Colorado law which forbade so-called “conversion therapy” was unconstitutional; Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor in the Rocky Mountain state is again free to “help gender-confused children become comfortable with their own bodies instead of pursuing irreversible transgender medical procedures.”

On the same day, Megan Brock posted ‘She Spoke Out On Gender Ideology And Became A Global Target: Transgender Day of Visibility is a perfect day to celebrate a real woman: J.K. Rowling‘ at The Daily Wire. Brock reviewed the history of Rowling’s courageous stand against TRAs and Gender Ideology Extremists. She placed special emphasis on the 2020 essay that created both an avalanche of nonsense about the Harry Potter author being “transphobic” and the cancellation of anyone and everyone in Rowling Studies who took the same position. Brock concludes her ‘Trans Day of Visibility’ post this way: [Read more…]

Filed Under: HBO+ TV Adaptation, Hog Pro Notes

Scene by Scene Breakdown of HBO+ Harry Potter TV Trailer: What it All Means

March 27, 2026 by Leave a Comment

On 25 March, HBO+ released their trailer for the teevee adaptation of the Harry Potter novels in conjunction with J. K. Rowling’s Bronte Studios and with the author as an Executive Producer. Within hours, the Super Carlin Brothers had a ‘scene by scene breakdown’ of the very brief trailer up on YouTube for their 2.3 million subscribers to enjoy.

Is there anything a Rowling Reader and Potter-phile has to know in this pains-taking guide? Maybe not — but it sure was fun ‘seeing’ all the detail in each scene, details that only stop-action examination under a microscope reveals. The camp Carlin Brothers schtick gets old fast, but his enthusiasm and love of the books radiates off the man. Delightful.

Which is not to mention his great vintage silk jacket that the Gryffindor baseball team’s relief pitcher would have worn in the 50s as he walked to the mound from the outfield bullpen.

What has me excited about this video is what it reflects about the Harry Potter fandom’s excitement about this new adaptation.

If the Super Carlin Brothers first video is any indication, we’re right back in the era of Potter Mania, midnight book releases, and CinePlex madness. No comments about the radioactive author’s supposed ‘transphobic’ beliefs (on a day when she is both doing a victory lap on twixter after the IOC decision to preserve women’s sports as well as cursing those who cursed her and bent the knee in 2024). No calls for a boycott because Rowling is “literally killing people.” Nothing but the joy of re-entering a beloved story in a new medium and a fresh, closer-to-the-books perspective.

Expect nine months of this kind of fandom enthusiasm with the released-at-Christmas due date causing the largest of all Advent Calendar rolling on for nine months (with the inevitable priming of the hype-pump by HBO+ in every month).

Will the Kill Joy TRAs and Gender Theory Extremists wave their torches and pitchforks? Count on it.

Will anyone outside of the Old Guard Fandom Gate Keepers care? I doubt it. We certainly won’t.

I’ll be writing a Harry Potter for Grown-Ups: Philosopher’s Stone over at the Substack site which will be sent to Paid Subscribers every month; the real codex and eBook editions will be ready for Die-Hard Generation Hex fans that grew up with the novels and now have children themselves to buy for Christmas, a text with all the things we’ve learned about Rowling since the publication of Deathly Hallows in 2007.

Accio, 25 December!

Here’s another trailer breakdown if you doubt the true fandom is thrilled about the teevee adaptation:

Filed Under: HBO+ TV Adaptation

HBO+ Harry Potter Trailer Released

March 26, 2026 by 1 Comment

Read the BBC article here. Three notes on the morning of release:

(1) It’s Beautiful. I’m thrilled. It’s been almost a quarter century since the film adaptations were made and it shows in the quality of the production. The Dursley scenes that were cartoonish in the Warner Brothers version of Stone here are haunting, hurtful, borderline horror. I think credit for this greater sensitivity to the text’s weight is due as least as much to the participation of the author and her film company, Bronte Studios, in this adaptation. If the shows are of the same brilliance as this teaser trailer, we are in for a delightful renaissance in Harry Potter fascination and study. Three Cheers!

(2) Note the Day of Release. As a maven on the Moderator Backchannels noted this morning, the trailer has been released on the western Feast Day of the Annunciation and the show will begin its run on Christmas Day. I struggle to think how the producers, marketers, and copyright holder could have signaled any more clearly the Christian content and the intentional transformational artistry of these stories.

(3) The Acting. I confess to being excited about having the faces of Daniel, Emma, and Rupert unfortunately imprinted on my imagination supplanted by the new child actors — and the new Dursleys being properly blonde! It’s only a two minute trailer but the little shown suggests that these child actors and the production’s decision makers might make the film adaptations of yesteryear an embarrassing memory soon.

Please share your first impressions in the comment boxes below!

A Shot by Shot Comparison of the Two Video Adaptations of the First Book

 

Filed Under: HBO+ TV Adaptation

Golden Trio Cast for HBO+ Potter Shows

May 28, 2025 by 1 Comment

The new Harry, Ron, and Hermione have been cast for the HBO+ and Bronte Studios adaptations of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.

From the author’s website, JKRowling.com:

The HBO Original HARRY POTTER television series has cast screen newcomers Dominic McLaughlin in the role of Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley.

Francesca Gardiner (Showrunner, Executive Producer) and Mark Mylod (Director of multiple episodes, Executive Producer) said:

‘After an extraordinary search led by casting directors Lucy Bevan and Emily Brockmann, we are delighted to announce we have found our Harry, Hermione, and Ron. The talent of these three unique actors is wonderful to behold, and we cannot wait for the world to witness their magic together onscreen. We would like to thank all the tens of thousands of children who auditioned. It’s been a real pleasure to discover the plethora of young talent out there.’

Rowling, an executive producer for the adaptation (not to mention her ownership of Bronte Studios), tweeted about the casting:

Which response generated a Daily Mail article of its own, ‘J K Rowling gives decisive four-word verdict on new Harry Potter child stars fronting TV series.’ MuggleNet, which seems to have forgotten its aversion to all things profiting Rowling, Inc., because of her supposed “bigotry” and “transphobia,” has posted a stream of articles about the teevee adaptation casting decisions as well as the Universal Epic Theme Park’s Wizarding World attractions which opened this week in Orlando.

Team Rowling invited MNet to the opening so it seems they have been brought back into the fold and their all-in condemnations of Rowling’s Gender Critical feminism have been memory-holed. Emma, Rupert, and Daniel should be so lucky…

Three quick thoughts on the casting choices:

(1) Black Hermione? Read all about it at Horse and Whip’s ‘Arabella Stanton’s Parents: What to Know About Her Ethnicity and Race.’ The Daily Mail came at the issue side-ways to dodge the racism charge in their piece, ‘Stunned Harry Potter fans claim new Hermoine star Arabella Stanton is spitting image of huge Hollywood actress – gasping ‘I can’t unsee it now!‘ (That would be Jenny Ortega.)

I’ve written what I want to say on the subject of diversity casting in ‘‘Black Severus’ versus ‘Black Hermione:’ Similarities and Differences in Casting.’ I’d only add what many others have said about the new Golden Trio; one can only hope that their parents and guardians of these children have carefully considered what their accepting these roles will mean for the rest of their lives and that they will do everything possible to protect them from the madness that will be the actors’ day-to-day life for the next decade.

(2) Rowling’s Birthday Resurrection It’s been quite the fortnight in Rowling Land.

First, the Sunday Times published a not quite hagiographic but certainly laudatory article, ‘JK Rowling: ‘Nobody who hasn’t been poor can understand what it means.’ It is a detailed review of the author’s more than generous philanthropy with respect to causes ranging from orphan children, women needing funding to seek judicial action in the Trans Wars, medical research, and a women-only shelter.

Then Hallmarked Man’s cover was released to the delight of all Cormoran Strike readers.

Then the Universal Epic theme park opened which excites that part of fandom that enjoys the 3D experience of the Wizarding World.

And then the Golden Trio casting was announced, the three players that Harry Potter screen fans are most interested in and excited about.

Rowling celebrates her 60th birthday at the end of July. I think the gods are smiling on her, the stars are coming into alignment, or the plans carefully laid out by the trio giants of Rowling’s marketing team are coming together so that this landmark celebration will see as much of a full-on rehabilitation of the author’s public image as is possible. It certainly helps that she has won the Trans Wars, with the scientific community, court decisions, and public opinion now lining up behind her with respect to the fact that sex is fixed and binary and women’s places must be protected from trans-identifying men.

I think Rowling’s more than positive press in the last two weeks on all fronts is evidence of a coordinated campaign, i.e., her marketing team’s hard work, to restore her platinum status among celebrities. Good on them. There will be naysayers in the comment threads beneath articles about Rowling on 31 July because there is no pleasing everyone but the great majority will be notes of admiration from fans of her writing, her philanthropy, or of her feminism.

The timing of this casting news announcement, in other words, probably is best viewed as part of a larger project and as one that is progressing very well indeed.

(3) So What?

I like to end posts and podcasts with an answer to the question, “So What?” I want the reader or listener to walk away from the conversation we’ve been having with the key points I’ve covered and why it matters.

I cannot think of a single reason that anyone outside the families of the young actors involved should care about this casting announcement. Given the history of child actors since the invention of moving screened images, those families should be alarmed. Given the proven hysterics and volatility, which is to say “mental instability,” of Harry Potter fandom leadership and twitterati (cf. their Trans War long knives for any and all not chanting “T-W-A-W!”), they may soon wonder why they didn’t refuse HBO+’s offer.

Which is none of my business, I know.

What is my business as the “Dean of Harry Potter Scholars” (TM) is to discuss the artistry and meaning of the work written by the world’s most famous and influential writer, J. K. Rowling. She is also, as I’ll argue in a future post, the world’s most famous and influential philanthropist and the world’s most famous and influential feminist. The “So What?” of these discussions is that, man being the story-telling animal and Rowling’s being the most popular stories globally in human history, understanding why and how they work — their structure, symbolism, allegorical and anagogical substance — reveal important ideas and information via reflection on imaginative experience about what it means to be human.

Talking about twitter headers, speculating about the covers of not-yet-published books, fan-girl-ing pre-adolescent actors, planning vacations in Orlando to ride exteriorized and packaged experiences erasing your imagination’s picture or to attend fan conferences? I’ve done all that. I’ll take a pass on those efforts in the run-up to Rowling’s birthday.

What I hope to be sharing here before the end of July are my research into and conclusions about Rowling Studies ‘Fourth Generation’ subjects:

  • What is the most persistent ‘golden thread’ that runs through everything Rowling writes?
  • What ‘Lake’ event in Rowling’s younger life inspired her to write the Harry Potter stories?
  • What are the points of intersection or places of overlap in the Venn diagram circles of Rowling’s three lives as writer, philanthropist, and feminist?
  • Are Rowling’s signature characteristics as an author — the literary alchemy, ring writing, psychomachia, traditional symbolism, and intertextual notes (among others!) — best understood in relationship to one another or independently?
  • Are the parallels between the Potter novels and their equivalent number in the Strike mysteries a playful game between author and serious reader or are they meaningful? And will there be parallels with other Rowling work in Galbraith numbers 8, 9, and 10?
  • Just what kind of feminist is Rowling beyond “biology based” and “Gender Critical”? She’s outside the usual categories of “academic” and “movement” feminism as well; does she have a role-model, living likeness, or historical equivalent?
  • Quo vadis, Joanna-Robertus? Extrapolating from Rowling’s recent experience of intentional solve et coagula transformation in the Trans Wars, what might the future hold for her?

That’s a lot, certainly, and it’s certainly a lot more interesting and important than HBO+ casting news from Rowling, Inc., marketing Headquarters. At least to me it is, but, sure, de gustibus. I’m still as interested as the next Serious Striker in ‘Who killed Leda?’ and ‘Is Robin sterile?’ but, until the Big Birthday Bash, I’m going to be focusing on the seven points above.

Stay tuned!

 

 

Filed Under: HBO+ TV Adaptation, Hog Pro Notes

John Lithgow Cast as HBO+ Dumbledore

February 26, 2025 by 3 Comments

Photo credit: Corey Nickols (The Telegraph)

American actor John Lithgow has been cast as Albus Dumbledore in the HBO+/Bronte Studios adaptations of the Harry Potter novels. Despite rumors of other cast decisions being made, Lithgow is the first central character actor whose contract to play the part has been confirmed. Three notes about this news!

(1) Three Things to Read: The Screen Rant exclusive story that first broke the news, ‘John Lithgow Confirms Casting As Dumbledore In HBO’s Harry Potter: “This Is Going To Define The Last Chapter Of My Life”,’ Lithgow’s Wikipedia page which details his history as an actor on stage, screen, and television, as well as his personal life, and a Telegraph profile of Lithgow from 2014, ‘John Lithgow: “I just can’t say no”.’ From the Screen Rant article:

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley today to promote his new project, The Rule of Jenny Penn, Lithgow now officially confirms that he has been cast as the Hogwarts Headmaster in HBO’s Harry Potter TV show. Though the actor, who is 79, doesn’t spill any details about the series, he does admit that the decision to accept was challenging because of the immense time commitment at this stage of his career. Check out Lithgow’s comment below:

Well, it came as a total surprise to me. I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid. But I’m very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. That’s why it’s been such a hard decision. I’ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I’ve said yes.

With Lithgow having now broken the seal, so to speak, it’s possible that more casting announcements will follow in the weeks ahead. So far, it’s been reported that Paapa Essiedu has been eyed to play Severus Snape in the show, and confirmation on this could arrive in the near future. Who will play the main trio of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley has so far remained a mystery, but the show reportedly put out a wide casting call for the young characters, meaning the actors chosen may not be recognizable names. [Emphasis in original]

(2) Is Lithgow Equal to the Dumbledore Role?

  • Well, he’s old enough in his eightieth year to pull it off certainly.
  • He’s played the lead in King Lear which was a triumph so he has the acting chops.
  • He may be a bit taller at 6’3″ than I’d have guessed as optimal for the Headmaster, but it sure beats his being too short.
  • He is an American but has acted on the English stage since his Fullbright scholarship at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
  • He’s straight or “heteronormative,” and has won acclaim for his portrayal of the transgender football player Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982) and of a married same-sex attracted man in Love is Strange (2014).

Two Tony awards, two Emmy awards, and two Oscar nominations with comedy, tragedy, and nuanced drama throughout his Playbill entry  — if resumes could talk, this one would shout, “Hire him already!”

(3) Why Did They Start with John ‘Albus’ Lithgow?

My guess about why the HBO+/Bronte Studios started the roll-out of actors and actresses confirmed to be playing parts in the bally-hooed production to adapt the Hogwarts Saga for television is because the usual suspects will have nothing to complain about. Fandom had been assured there would be no Woke ‘Black Hermione’ drama; casting would conform to the published texts. And then ‘Black Severus’ went viral, Paapa Esssiedu as the Potions Master, and even though it was (and remains) an unconfirmed rumor. Harry Potter fandom, still in its Transgender Twist and Cancellation Reflex Mode, threw a fit, for and against the choice, mostly against (see the comment threads at my posts The Casting Genius of ‘Black Severus:’ Paapa Essiedu Chosen as New Snape and ‘Black Severus’ versus ‘Black Hermione:’ Similarities and Differences in Casting).

Any publicity is good publicity, supposedly, but the target audience is both exhausted by controversy and exhausting on everybody in that orbit. Yes, I loved the rumor that Mark Rylance was going to be tapped as the new Dumbledore (Black Snape, White Dumbledore? HBO+ Reaches Out to Mark Rylance for Albus); I did, however, express skepticism about the possibility that a stage actor of his skills would surrender the last ten years of his working life to a teevee show. John Lithgow is not an actor with the near future projects and possibilities that Rylance has and he has taken the plunge. Three cheers.

And a huzzah that his being selected will be met with a yawn by Potter Purists and TRA Twitter Titans alike. The series is supposed to start shooting its Philosopher’s Stone adaptations this summer for a late 2026, early 2027 release. The less drama at the start of this thespian marathon, the more likely it is we’ll all make it to the finish line together and can meet future announcements with keen anticipation rather than dread.

Filed Under: HBO+ TV Adaptation