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JK Rowling has said she will not fire actor Paapa Essiedu from the forthcoming Harry Potter TV series over his support for transgender rights.
Essiedu has been cast as key character Severus Snape in the HBO drama, which is designed to run for more than a decade and will be one of the most expensively produced television shows of all time.
In a post on X, Rowling wrote: “I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did. I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.”
Last week, Essiedu, along with more than 1,500 figures from film and TV, signed an open letter condemning the UK supreme court ruling, which judged that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer only to a biological woman and to biological sex.
“We believe the ruling undermines the lived reality and threatens the safety of trans, non-binary and intersex people living in the UK,” said the letter, which was also signed by former Harry Potter stars Emma Watson, Eddie Redmayne and Katie Leung.
The letter said film and TV industry professionals “must now urgently work to ensure that our trans, non-binary and intersex colleagues, collaborators and audiences are protected from discrimination and harassment in all areas of the industry – whether on set, in a production office or at a cinema”.
In a separate post last week, Rowling claimed some signatories of the letter were “motivated by fear.”
In 2024, Rowling donated £70,000 to For Women Scotland, the campaign group who played a key role in bringing about the challenge of how a woman is defined in law.
After the supreme court’s ruling, Rowling shared a photo on social media of herself smoking a cigar from her superyacht with the caption: “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Figures have begun calling for boycotts of the Harry Potter universe. Last month, the actor Pedro Pascal attacked Rowling on X, calling her a “heinous loser” in response to a post sharing the words of activist Tariq Ra’ouf, who urged people to boycott Rowling’s work.
Pascal liked the post and wrote: “Awful disgusting SHIT is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behaviour.”
