John Lithgow Shocked By J.K. Rowling Backlash Over His HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Role

John Lithgow is feeling some of the heat that JK Rowling more or less felt by celebrating a recent supreme court ruling affecting trans people.

Even though Lithgow doesn’t understand why that’s a factor for people in HBO’s remaking of ‘Harry Potter,’ he’s still happy he accepted the role of Albus Dumbledore.

Hogwarts is truly in session everyone.

John Lithgow Is Curious About How JK Rowling Is Absorbing the Drama Surrounding HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Retelling

‘Harry Potter’ was one of the biggest franchises of the 2000’s decade. It influenced a lot of aspects of pop culture and even softened the way people generally saw the word “witches.”

The books shaped a lot of curious little minds and the movies no doubt brought joy to countless homes. I honestly don’t know what childhood would have been like otherwise without the magic of ‘Harry Potter’ inspiring it.

Now, it’s been over two decades since the release of the first ‘Harry Potter’ films and HBO has decided to make a version for the new generation.

The promise is that it will be a more faithful adaptation of the books than the movies ever were. The catch then becomes that JK Rowling will be very much involved with the production to ensure that it does indeed turn out to be a faithful adaptation.

Recently, casting for the series was announced, with Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, and of course

Lithgow as Dumbledore.

This has been met with controversies for a lot of different reasons. Some of them, however, revolves around Rowling’s support for anti-Trans laws. Speaking to The Times, Lithgow revealed that he didn’t expect to inherit some of the criticisms for the author’s controversial views as well.

“I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?‘” Lithgow said. “I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her.”

This role is especially significant to Lithgow, because it could very well be his last major role.

“It was a big decision because it’s probably the last major role I’ll play,” Lithgow said. “It’s an eight-year commitment, so I was just thinking about mortality and that this is a very good winding-down role.”

But if you’re waiting for Lithgow to feel any differently about his Dumbledore casting because of the backlash, his response is: “Oh, heavens no.”

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