When you’re as rich as J.K. Rowling, you’re inclined not to give a damn what the mere mortals think, and that’s been proven true once again as the controversial author unsurprisingly revealed that she couldn’t care less about the backlash to Warner Bros. Discovery’s announcement of a Harry Potter TV series.
As the creator of the property, anything bearing the iconic branding is always going to end up with Rowling lining her pockets, so it’s easy to see why she isn’t paying much heed to the criticisms. There’s genuinely no need to remake Harry Potter for any other point than financial gain and a desire to milk the cash cow for all it’s worth – especially when Fantastic Beasts has effectively been dragged around the back and shot as a result – but people are still guaranteed to watch it.
Widespread calls for a boycott may have gained traction online, but it’ll be a long time before we find out if that actually translates to viewing figures, which arguably won’t even matter when WB has already outlined a decade-long commitment. Until then, though, Rowling is going to sit back, relax in her palatial mansion, and work her way through a caseload of champagne.
While her words clearly come across as smug and self-serving, it’s not as if Rowling is in the business of giving a rat’s ass. The countless transphobia controversies and desire to deliberately alienate a huge section of her former fanbase has become par for the course over the last few years, and she’s guaranteed to continue amassing her fortune regardless of how thing shake out for the Harry Potter streaming series.
