logo
HBO bosses speak out on Harry Potter series amid Rowling controversy

HBO bosses speak out on Harry Potter series amid Rowling controversy

Extra.ie​03-05-2025

HBO bosses have addressed the impending Harry Potter series amid major controversy surrounding JK Rowling.
The highly-anticipated TV series has hit headlines after announcing six main cast members last month, with many fans planning to boycott the production due to the original author's divisive views.
The controversy follows Rowling's comments about the trans community, which have amplified following the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman. HBO bosses have addressed the impending Harry Potter series amid major controversy surrounding JK Rowling. Pic: Warner Bros. Pictures
Now, HBO's chief content officer Casey Bloys has spoken out regarding the series and Rowling's belief system.
'The decision to be in business with JK Rowling is not new for us. We've been in business for 25 years,' Bloys said during an appearance on The Town podcast.
'We already have a show on HBO from her called C.B. Strike that we do with the BBC. The highly-anticipated TV series has hit headlines after announcing six main cast members last month, with many fans planning to boycott the production due to the original author's divisive views. Pic: Karwai Tang/WireImage
'It's pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She's entitled to them,' he added.
'Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything.
'And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.' The controversy follows Rowling's comments about the trans community, which have amplified following the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman. Pic: Warner Bros.
While they held an open casting call to find Harry, Ron and Hermione, some very well-known names have been attached to other leading characters of the franchise.
John Lithgow will play Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu will play Severus Snape, and Janet McTeer will play Minerva McGonagall.
Luke Thallon will also be playing Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher Quirinus Quirrell, Nick Frost will take on the role of Hagrid, and Paul Whitehouse will be Squib caretaker Argus Filch.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Rev Richard Coles: 'Intense grief is the tribute that you pay for the person you've lost'
Rev Richard Coles: 'Intense grief is the tribute that you pay for the person you've lost'

Irish Examiner

time3 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Rev Richard Coles: 'Intense grief is the tribute that you pay for the person you've lost'

Showbiz divas are nothing new to writer, broadcaster and retired vicar The Rev Richard Coles, whose first Canon Clement book Murder Before Evensong is currently being adapted for TV. 'I have spent some time around divas. I've always been rather fascinated by them. 'It's interesting, because a diva is a rather disparaging term for someone who's extremely difficult, capricious – and they can be all those things. 'But often they are operating in a very competitive world and they are doing their thing – and that sometimes mean you take no prisoners. I rather like divas and I have some divas in my life and enjoy their company.' Coles, 63, whose latest tour Borderline National Trinket is a title which arguably sums him up, says he loves fame and indeed has fuelled it with his fair share of reality TV gigs, including Strictly Come Dancing and I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! (he came third in 2024), and his appearances on numerous panel shows, his bestselling novels and several podcasts. Now in an enclave of cosy crime writers – he has known Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club king of cosy crime, for some years – who gather at crime festivals, he says that far from being competitive, it's a very supportive, friendly world. 'When Murder Before Evensong went to number one, Richard sent me a little note saying, 'Do you remember when years ago, we used to talk about murder mysteries? And here we are.' That was very generous of him.' Coles has taken to asking everyone he meets about how they would murder someone in their profession, he continues. 'I had a fascinating conversation with some dentists in Egypt about how they would murder someone, which I'm definitely going to use, and I'm spending an evening with The British Tunnelling Society which will be useful on how to dispose of a body,' he says dryly. Richard Coles. Picture: Matt Crockett Being on set during some of the filming of Murder Before Evensong, due to be broadcast in October on Channel 5 and starring Matthew Lewis (who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films) and Amanda Redman as the canon's indefatigable mother, Audrey, also provided the spark of inspiration for the latest novel, A Death On Location. Set in 1990, it sees Daniel Clement and his sidekick Det Sgt Neil Vanhoo – for whom his interest is both professional and personal – investigating the stabbing of a local woman, an extra on the set of a Hollywood movie being shot at the fictional Champton House in the eponymous rural village. He jokes that his title of executive producer for the TV adaptation isn't as grand as it sounds. 'You get a bacon sandwich from catering,' he muses. 'I get given a set of headphones, then I can walk around looking important. I don't know anything about adapting books for television so I'm very happy to leave that to people who know how to do that. 'I talked to the actors quite a lot, especially Matt Lewis, about what it's like being a priest, with some suggestions.' One of the main characters in his latest novel is acting diva Gillian Smith – not based on anyone he knows but you get the impression he writes with authority – one of an array of suspects along with directors, assistants and others in the film-making process. His fictional diva relies on her minions to do everything for her, is deliberately unreliable and makes outrageous demands – and Coles has witnessed similar in real life, although he's far too diplomatic to name names. 'There are little things, like spectacular lateness. I mean hours late, days late, weeks late. I write a bit about Gillian that whenever she goes out to dinner, her poor PA has to fax instructions to the host saying what she will do and what she won't do. That's all based on real life experience of a certain diva I know. The Rev Richard Coles with his dogs Pongo and Daisy (Matt Crockett/PA) 'If you are cossetted and people jump when you want them to jump, you get used to that pretty quick.' Diva behaviour isn't something completely alien to the former Church of England vicar. He recalls that as a member of Eighties band The Communards it was easy to forget that fame wasn't a natural state of affairs. 'What's tough is when you stop being a pop star and return to civilian ranks. I remember once going to the airport just after The Communards had finished, and just presenting myself at the VIP check-in, and the computer said no. And I thought, 'How could you be so rude?' Then after a while I realised I just wasn't in that category anymore.' These days, he still loves being in the spotlight, he admits. 'I do like attention. Put on a spotlight and I'll run towards it.' His showbiz pals include influencer GK Barry, whom he met on I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! He's hoping to work on a new project with her. 'We got on so well and it was such an unlikely friendship and people seemed to enjoy it. I like visiting her world and trying to figure out what's going on and I think she quite likes visiting my world, so may a little trip together would be fun to do. 'I love the TV reality format because you always have a 'bromance', but I've never had a bromance with a 25-year-old lesbian before, and that's great.' He doesn't bring his showbiz life home to East Sussex, he stresses. His partner, actor Richard 'Dickie' Cant, son of the late actor and children's TV presenter Brian Cant, whom he met in 2022 on a dating app, is about to move in. 'I think I'm quite difficult to live with. I'm very chirpy in the morning, which doesn't always go down well. And we have to negotiate our way around things like Match Of The Day. He's not very keen on football. He asked me one day if Arsenal was Spurs. 'He's quite tough, and he doesn't take any messing from me. If he needs to put me right on something, he does, and that's fine. He's just a great guy.' Will he marry again? 'I think so, probably, but all in good time.' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson/PA) He says he's enjoying his 60s enormously, yet life hasn't been all glitterballs and glamour for the famous vicar. He has suffered his share of grief – the death of his husband David from alcohol addiction at the end of 2019 while Coles was still vicar of Finedon, Northamptonshire, of his mother last year and recently his two dogs, Pongo and Daisy. Yet he can see the positive side of grief. 'Intense grief is the tribute that you pay for the person you've lost. So I don't begrudge it at all. I'm used to the feeling of grief.' When he's home, he helps out in his local parish but doesn't have the same day-to-day connections with the community that he had as vicar of Finedon. 'I do miss it – I loved being a vicar, it was great.' But he has plenty to keep him busy. He'll have another Canon Clement novel out at Christmas, is writing a children's book, and away from the spotlight loves cooking and playing the piano. 'I used to be ambitious but that's burned away now and I'm quite content with my life. I don't have a bucket list, the only thing I can think of is that I'd quite like to learn to yodel.' A Death On Location by Richard Coles is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on June 5.

Sydney Sweeney says she has to 'prove' herself as an actor and businessperson
Sydney Sweeney says she has to 'prove' herself as an actor and businessperson

RTÉ News​

time2 days ago

  • RTÉ News​

Sydney Sweeney says she has to 'prove' herself as an actor and businessperson

Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney has said she has to "prove" herself as a young woman, actor and businessperson. The actress, 27, rose to fame after starring in the hit HBO series Euphoria, alongside Zendaya and Saltburn's Jacob Elordi, playing the popular and troubled high-school pupil Cassie. Sweeney has since starred in the hit HBO TV show The White Lotus, playing spoiled Olivia Mossbacher in the first series, and stars alongside Julianne Moore in the upcoming thriller Echo Valley. Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: "I have to prove myself as a young woman, as an actor, as a businessperson, all of it." 🗣️ "I have to prove myself as a young woman" Thanks to The White Lotus and hit rom-com Anyone But You, Sydney Sweeney has become one of Hollywood's biggest stars — but she's had to fight hard to get there. Read the interview ⬇️ — The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 31, 2025 In 2020 she launched her own production company, Fifty-Fifty films, which was behind the hit romantic comedy Anyone But You which she starred in alongside US actor Glen Powell. Speaking about her role in the company, she said: "I have to be like, I want to be in the room, I want to sit in every single meeting and want to be involved in every decision, I want to be taken seriously as a producer. "To be honest, actually, I always find that it's the women who give me the hardest time." She said this happens outside the boardroom and in auditions too. She said: "I see it all the time where they don't think I am right for (a role) because they watched Cassie in Euphoria. Especially because Cassie was such a sexualised character, that puts a wall up for people. "I feel like I'm constantly having to be like, no, no, I'm an actor, I'm supposed to be different characters. "When I see a script or a character I find a little scary and it's going to challenge me and I don't know if I can pull it off, I've got to do it." She has also starred in the blockbuster Madame Web and the horror mystery Immaculate, in which she plays an American nun whose new home in a convent in Italy proves to be not quite what it seems. Her fame, however, has come at a cost, and she has described the lack of privacy she now has. She added: "A lot is gone, like privacy. Which is huge. You don't realise how much that means until you lose it. I see all the time, 'Oh, they sold themselves, they knew what they were signing up for'. But 18-year-old me had no idea what she was signing up for." She also spoke about her long-term relationship with Anyone But You co-producer and ex-fiancé Jonathan Davino, 41, adding that she is now single. She said: "I'm learning a lot about myself, spending more time with my friends. And I'm loving it." Sweeney received two Emmy Award nominations in 2022, one for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series for her role as Cassie in Euphoria, and the other for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for her role in The White Lotus.

New Harry Potter TV series risks fan fury after they film classic scenes in bizarre location
New Harry Potter TV series risks fan fury after they film classic scenes in bizarre location

The Irish Sun

time4 days ago

  • The Irish Sun

New Harry Potter TV series risks fan fury after they film classic scenes in bizarre location

SACRE bleu! Filming for the Harry Potter TV series has begun — in France. US media giant HBO has dispatched crew to the rocky Île de Sein off Brittany, seemingly forgetting the Britishness of the boy wizard adventures. 5 The new Harry Potter series has begun filming at an island off the coast of France Credit: Getty 5 The new actors for the Harry Potter television series were unveiled this week, Dominic McLaughlin (centre) will take on the lead role of Daniel Radcliffe Credit: HBO 5 How Nick Frost will look like as Hagrid in the series The island is thought to be the setting for scenes in the Hut-on-the-Rock, a dilapidated holiday shack where Hagrid turns up to announce: 'You're a wizard, Harry.' In the books, the hut is on an island off Cornwall — rather than five miles off one of the westernmost points of France. But producers insisted on using it as they thought it a suitably windswept location. A TV insider said: 'This caused a certain amount of amusement among the British crew who all agreed that they could have easily got windswept in virtually any part of the British Isles. READ MORE ON HARRY POTTER 'They've been slightly bewildered by the fact they've actually gone to France to make a show which is so British — particularly since it's the first place they've gone to and they're doing key scenes there. 'For fans it's likely to be a sign that with American producers running the show, it might not be as mindful of A film crew of about 30 is said to be camped at Pointe du Raz on the west coast of Brittany and every day they travel backwards and forwards by boat to the island. On a rocky outcrop off Île de Sein is the supposedly haunted 19th century Tévennec lighthouse, which may end up being used as the Hut-on-the-Rock in the final edit. Most read in News TV The surprising choice of location comes after HBO this week announced that young Scottish actor Dominic McLaughlin would be taking on the lead role previously played in the movies by Englishman Daniel Radcliffe. He will star alongside Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, characters depicted in the films by Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Official Trailer Between 2001 and 2011 they starred in eight movies, all made in the studio or on location in Britain. Bath, Oxford and London were among the cities where scenes were filmed, while more remote locations in Durham and the Scottish Highlands were also used. Warner Bros has invested millions of pounds in rapidly expanding its studio at Leavesden, near Watford, to accommodate shooting of the TV adaptation of all seven on JK Rowling's books. The Sun Hagrid, Hogwarts' groundskeeper played by the late Meanwhile, John Lithgow will be the wizard school's headmaster Albus Dumbledore and Paul Whitehouse will appear as its caretaker, Argus Filch. The series is expected to drop next year — although it is not confirmed which service will take it. HBO declined to comment on the use of a French location. But Île de Sein does have a magical link — it was, legend has it, home to virgin druid princesses with the power to take on animal forms, just like Animagi in the Potter stories. 5 The hut-on-the-rock is an important location in Harry Potter lore Credit: 5 The famous scene sees mentor Hagrid turns up to announce: 'You're a wizard, Harry' Credit: Alamy

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store