The first teaser for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first season of HBO’s Harry Potter series, feels like it was brewed up in a potions lab to induce maximum nostalgia.
Look, here’s Harry Potter (Dominic McLaughlin) living in the cupboard under the stairs! Here he is meeting Hermione (Arabella Stanton) and Ron (Alastair Stout) on the Hogwarts Express! Here he is unwrapping the Nimbus 2000! All it’s missing is “Hedwig’s Theme.”
I won’t lie that my inner child jumped at reentering the storied halls of Hogwarts. But quickly, it became overcome with the frustration that this series exists in the first place. Not only are there more fantasy stories itching to be adapted to the small screen, but Harry Potter’s legacy remains tied to its creator’s transphobia.
Author J.K. Rowling, who serves as an executive producer on the series, has routinely made harmful, discriminatory comments towards the trans community, with recent behavior including praising the UK’s Girlguiding ban of trans girls and attacking Glamour UK for praising trans women in their 2025 Women of the Year issue. In 2025, she also launched the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, which is devoted to “women’s sex-based rights,” or further transphobic rhetoric. Rowling is funding this herself with the considerable money she’s earned in large part from her Harry Potter empire, which will only continue to grow with the HBO series.
Rowling’s discriminatory turn is in stark opposition to Harry Potter’s message of inclusion and celebrating differences, and she’s only doubled down further in the face of criticism, including some from longtime fans of the franchise. That ugliness hangs like a stain over the teaser for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and as much as I’d like to get excited over visiting Hogwarts again, I simply can’t.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone premieres this Christmas on HBO and HBO Max.
