Casey Bloys, HBO’s Chief Content Officer, recently declared that the upcoming Harry Potter TV series is “not secretly being infused with anything.”
In an interview with Matthew Belloni on The Town podcast, Bloys was asked, “Harry Potter: On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being almost never and 10 being constantly refreshing the site, how often do you monitor J.K. Rowling’s Twitter for her transgender commentary?”
Bloys responded, “I’m very aware of her views and what’s going on. So not often.”
Next, he was asked, “Do you worry about her transgender views?”
He replied, “No. You know, I’ve said this before, but the decision to be in business with J.K. Rowling is not new for us. We’ve been in business for 25 years. We already have a show on HBO from her called C.B. Strike that we do with the BBC.
“It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views. She’s entitled to them,” he continued. “‘Harry Potter’ is not secretly being infused with anything. And she’s entitled to those views. And I think people are pretty clear that she’s entitled to them. And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.”
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He was also asked if Pedro Pascal had said anything to him about her. He said, “No.”
Later in the interview, he briefly returned to this subject saying, “Somebody said to me when that op-ed came out and you mentioned the Pedro Pascal thing, ‘Well, are you concerned or whatever?’ I was like, ‘I’m not a principal of a middle school where all the students have to get along. These are all very smart, creative people who are going to have their opinions.”
However, Pascal did publicly denigrate Rowling following the U.K. Supreme Court ruling that sex is binary. In a comment on Tariq Raouf’s Instagram video bashing Rowling, Pascal wrote, “Awful disgusting S**T is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behavior.”
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As for nothing secret being infused, Bloys and HBO race swapped Severus Snape with actor Paapa Essiedu in a pretty clear promotion of the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda.
What do you make of Bloys’ comments?
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Not secretly, no.
Openly, yes.
Sure, it's out in the open to anybody who has eyes.