J.K. Rowling Insists She Lacks the Power to Fire Paapa Essiedu From ‘Harry Potter’ Over Differing Trans Views – and Wouldn’t Anyway

J.K. Rowling, who has been a staunch anti-trans advocate, responded Monday to the suggestion Paapa Essiedu’s role as Severus Snape in the new “Harry Potter” series was at risk after he signed an open letter supporting trans rights. The letter called on the U.K. entertainment industry to protect the trans community following the country’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. 

“I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did,” the author wrote in an X post on Monday with an attachment to a news article that raised the question of Essiedu’s job security. “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 several other actors from the “Harry Potter” film franchise including Eddie Redmayne and Katie Leung (who played Cho Chang), signed an open letter of over 400 signatures calling on the U.K. entertainment industry to protect the trans community. The letter said that the recent ruling “undermines the lived reality and threatens the safety of trans, nonbinary and intersex people living in the U.K.”

On April 17, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex — a decision that could have far-reaching implications for trans people and their access to single-sex services and spaces. Rowling, who has expressed strong anti-trans beliefs in recent years, made it clear she supported the ruling in a series of social media posts saying she “loved it when a plan comes together.”

Later, in a lengthy X post where she tore into the open letter and its signatories, the author called out “back-stabbing colleagues” who were “motivated by fear,” which led many to believe she was referring to actors like Essiedu. 

“These letters do nothing but remind us of what we know only too well: that pretending to believe these things has become an elitist badge of virtue,” Rowling said in an X post on Saturday.

“Some argue that signatories of these sorts of letters are motivated by fear: fear for their careers, of course, but also fear of their co-religionists, who include angry, narcissistic men who threaten and sometimes enact violence on non-believers; back-stabbing colleagues ever ready to report wrongthink,” the author continued.

Rowling ended the lengthy statement saying, “I wonder if they ever ask themselves how they got here, and I wonder whether any of them will ever feel shame.”

The upcoming “Harry Potter” series on HBO has been marred with backlash from many fans who are wary the author will impose her anti-trans views on the project. Last Wednesday, HBO Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys assured fans that this was not the case.

“It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She’s entitled to them. ‘Harry Potter’ is not secretly being infused with anything,” Bloys said on an episode of “The Town With Matthew Belloni.” “If you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.”

Other actors who have spoken out against the author include Pedro Pascal, who deemed her support of the U.K. bill “heinous LOSER behavior,” and “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan, who said, “Keep your new ‘Harry Potter’ lads. Wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

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