According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new series will “cast new leads and include far more detail from the seven novels, which were often rather truncated in their previous adaptations into Warner Bros. feature films.”
Activists went full dementor upon hearing the news:
Many activists targeted Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO & Max Content, for saying that the company has no plans to “get into” or address Rowling’s political views. There was a time when such a position would seem a victory for free speech to allow writers and artists to create regardless of their political views. There was a time when Communists and socialists were blacklisted. Now, it is the left that is routinely calling for blacklisting of those with opposing views.
Kathryn VanArendonk, who appropriately writes for a site called Vulture, pounced on the news: “This faithful adaptation of harry potter, announced with absolutely bullshit craven disdain for rowling’s political impact, is bad.”
Rolling Stone reporter Sean T. Collins insisted that artists and writers should first and foremost answer for their political views before their art is discussed — calling feminists who question transgender policies as engaging in hate speech. Collins wrote “If you interview an actor or filmmaker or executive involved with the Harry Potter tv show and don’t lead with a question about JK Rowling leading a hate group you’re done, over, out of the art club.”
So if you adopt a feminist view at odds with transgender policies, this reporter believes you should be blacklisted and forced “out of the art club.” Your art does not matter any more than the work of Communists blacklisted in the McCarthy period.
It is not the lack of sense but the lack of shame that is most striking in these attacks.