J.K. Rowling has said that she would never advocate for an actor to be removed from the upcoming "Harry Potter" television reboot due to their support for trans rights.
Paapa Essiedu, who will play Severus Snape in the new HBO show, is one of many film and TV professionals who signed a letter calling for more support for trans rights in the industry. Shortly after Essiedu's appearance as a signatory on the letter emerged, Rowling took to social media to dismiss speculation that she would have him axed.
"I don't have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn't exercise it if I did," she wrote in a post on X.
"I don't believe in taking away people's jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine," Rowling added.
Over 400 prominent members of the film industry signed the letter, which emerged after a controversial ruling by the U.K. Supreme Court that legally defines gender based on biological sex. The decision was supported by Rowling but strongly criticized by LGBTQ+ groups.
On Saturday, Rowling addressed the letter in a scathing essay posted on X.
"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," Rowling wrote.
"These letters do nothing but remind us of what we know only too well: that pretending to believe these things has become an elitist badge of virtue," she added.
"Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink; the online shamers and doxxers and rape threateners, and, of course, the influential zealots in the upper echelons of liberal professions."
Production on the "Harry Potter" series hasn't started yet, but the project has already caused division among fans and former cast members. Many are speaking out over Rowling's past comments on the transgender community, and some are questioning the views of those involved in the show.