Wil Wheaton says he spends his time standing up for people who are being hurt. His latest target is J.K. Rowling and HBO’s Harry Potter series, which premieres this Christmas with three children in its lead roles.
Wheaton is 54. He worked as a child actor and has spoken about what that cost him. He’s apparently not thinking of the children involved in this production when he goes off on his hatred, but he certainly will take the industry clout for it.
Wheaton on Rowling: “A Hateful, Disgusting, Despicable Human Being”
Wheaton explained his motive this way:
“And when I see other people experiencing that, I cannot help myself. I have to throw myself between those people and the people who are hurting them,” he says. “I’m standing up for my younger self in ways that no one ever, ever did.”
Then the conversation turned to J.K. Rowling:
“J.K. Rowling’s a piece of s***,” says Wheaton. “She’s a hateful, disgusting, despicable human being. She gets off on the suffering of others. I don’t know what her f***ing problem is. I don’t know why she can’t leave people alone. I hate her, and what I want everyone to understand is, when you watch this program, you are putting money in her pocket that she turns around and spends to hurt people.”
In one answer, Wheaton calls Rowling hateful and then announces, “I hate her.” He did not stop with her. He said everyone involved in producing the new Harry Potter series “should be deeply ashamed of themselves.”
“Everyone involved in producing” is a wide net. Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout play Harry, Ron and Hermione, and the adult cast includes John Lithgow and Janet McTeer. Wheaton’s statement draws no line between the adults and the children.
Wheaton has said what his own childhood on sets did to him. On returning to a set, he said:
“The part of me that’s so deeply traumatized by the whole childhood acting thing is like, ‘Do not put me there. I don’t want to go anywhere near that,’”
On Threads, a Question About a Children’s Show Gets a Curse
Wheaton put the same position on Threads. A user asked followers whether they planned to watch HBO’s Harry Potter series, and Wheaton answered:
“As so many have said, f**k no we aren’t, we are standing with trans people.”
Another user replied that they were excited to watch it. The answer opens with an expletive and speaks for a “we” that Wheaton never defines, in response to a question about a family fantasy show.
HBO executive Casey Bloys has addressed Rowling’s role as an executive producer:
“Our priority is what’s on the screen.”
Bloys has described the Harry Potter story as being about love and self-acceptance.
Wheaton Joins a Pressure Campaign Already Running
Performers on Harry Potter projects have been targeted for years, and Wheaton is not the first. Michelle Gomez, who voices Professor McGonagall in Audible’s full-cast Harry Potter audio editions, answered fan criticism in August 2025 with an Instagram statement:
“I hear you, and I understand why this is painful for many.”
Gomez wrote that she supports trans rights “fully and without hesitation” and said she had made a donation to Callen-Lorde, an LGBTQ+ health organization. Cush Jumbo, the audiobook narrator, was criticized by a Drag Race UK contestant for the same job.
As we reported, Baldur’s Gate III voice actor Dave Jones went a step further and tried to shame his own colleagues on X, posting a screenshot of the cast names with this message:
“So incredibly disappointing to see these amazing people on this…”
Most of the replies went against him, and he muted the thread. Activists also went after streamers who played Hogwarts Legacy, and BlueSky accounts targeted the publisher of a Codenames Harry Potter variant, which then promised to donate its profits to a transgender charity.
Gomez, Jumbo and Jones are adults hired for audiobook roles. Wheaton’s statement reaches a production whose lead roles belong to children.
Nearly Three Decades of Readers Say Otherwise
The books Wheaton wants viewers to avoid have been in children’s hands since 1998. Scholastic reports more than 600 million copies sold worldwide, publication in 85 languages and a number-one New York Times and USA Today ranking for every book. Deathly Hallows sold 8.3 million copies in the United States in its first 24 hours. Scholastic’s 2006 and 2008 reading surveys found that 74 percent of kids said reading Harry Potter made them interested in other books, and that 76 percent of parents said it helped their child do better in school.
The first trailer for the HBO series gives Nick Frost’s Hagrid this line to Harry:
“Your parents were the kindest, bravest people I have ever met. They were funny and clever and they stood up for what they believe is right.”
Wheaton says ticket buyers send Rowling money that “she turns around and spends to hurt people.” PinkNews reports that Rowling revealed a donation to the legal battle that preceded the UK Supreme Court ruling excluding trans women from the legal definition of women under the 2010 Equality Act, and that she set up the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund for similar cases. Rowling’s position is that a man cannot be a woman. Funding that legal case is the spending Wheaton is describing.
The people on the production are actors, writers and a composer who took a job adapting a children’s book series. Gomez answered the pressure with a statement and a donation. Wheaton’s answer to the series is a curse and a demand for shame.
Wheaton says everyone involved in producing the series should be ashamed. Does that include the children playing Harry, Ron and Hermione, and if it does not, who exactly is left to be ashamed?
Six books. One unforgettable world. The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle is steampunk adventure with the kind of worldbuilding and heart that made you fall in love with fantasy in the first place. Start the series on Amazon.
As Picard once said, “Shut up, Wesley!”
Shut up, Wesley.