Hogwarts Legacy Developers Respond to Controversy Around Creator’s Anti-Transgender Views
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy lets players zoom with a broomstick, master exotic spellbooks, and eat bread with fellow students on the castle grounds. There are millions of Harry Potter fans around the planet, and after years of half-baked movie tie-ups and app store roaming, Portkey Games is ready to announce Wizarding World’s first full-fledged big game. We promised to accept the budget.
Unfortunately, J.K. Rowling, author and primary rights holder of the Harry Potter franchise, recently reinvented itself as one of the most prominent anti-transgender voices across culturetorpedoed many of the dizzying amounts of goodwill that the Hogwarts legacy was supposed to offer.
As the game’s release approaches (just two weeks away), Portkey’s customers will find themselves navigating a thicket of unsolvable ethical issues. Is it possible to separate the themes of love and belonging that are so important to the Harry Potter canon from its whimsical author? Can the world be taken back?
Here’s how the game’s director, Alan Tew, addressed these discrepancies.
“I think every game we’ve worked on has its challenges, and this game is no different. When we hit those challenges, we go back and do what we really care about. We know our fans have fallen in love with The Wizarding World and we believe they fell in love for the right reasons,” he said. “We know it’s a diverse audience. For us, it’s about making sure the audience that’s always dreamed of this game has the opportunity to feel welcome. They’re here.” to have a home in and be a good place to tell their story…”
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Tew didn’t name JK Rowling and didn’t say anything specific about transgender issues or trans rights. I asked him his second question — if he himself had second thoughts about working on this IP after Rowling’s bias came up — and after a pause, Tew said, He repeated his earlier statement: The team made the Hogwarts legacy for everyone.
Nonetheless, Rowling’s backlash over her continued opposition to transgender inclusion remains a central part of the conversation about Harry Potter. Emma Watson When Daniel Radcliffeboth opposing Rowling’s stance in their own statements.
We recently got the chance to see Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy with our own eyes. The team is Hogwarts Legacy’s gameplay. The character creators here are broadly inclusive and take into account a wide range of gender differences. Voice tone, body type and pronouns (i.e. choosing between witches and wizards) are all on separate sliders.
You can find out everything we know about the Hogwarts legacy and how Harry Potter fans are coping with JK Rowling here. Released on Xbox Series X|S, PC, followed by versions for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Luke Winkie is a freelance writer for IGN.
