Hogwarts Legacy was announced in 2020 and has since been haunted online by its association with JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books and creator of the Wizarding World setting, whose views on trans issues are so controversial and widely reported. Warner Bros. is desperate to make it clear that she has nothing to do with the game’s creation. Now, a few weeks before its February 10 release, the de facto gaming forum Restera has completely banned discussion of the game.
A statement (opens in new tab) posted by ResetEra general manager B-Dubs on behalf of the moderation team reads:
“After an ongoing internal discussion, we began to outline the issues raised by Rowling and the game in question and each time, and as we discussed everything, we kept coming back to the simple fact that Rowling isn’t just a bigot, but also actively pushing, in her position as a rich and famous person, for legislation that will harm transgender people. That she use the influence and money she has earned from her success with Harry Potter to push through transphobic legislation”.
ResetEra had previously, in February 2021, banned “promotional” activities for the game: so no discussions about announcements or new trailers, no hype threads, “no fuzz on the features”. Now it goes all over Hogwarts.
“The mod team has decided to extend our previous ban on promoting the Hogwarts game to the game itself. There will be no OT and no discussion of this game”.
The statement ends with a warning to the community about commenting on content ban decisions by the mod team or advocating for its overthrow. As is standard for posts of this type in RestEra, the thread does not allow replies.
This may be unprecedented, but it’s not entirely unexpected. ResetEra’s stance has been very skeptical of the game since day one, and the general vibe on the forum can be fairly described as lefty. The 2021 ban on promotion was prompted by ResetEra members who discovered that a producer on Hogwarts Legacy had a history of making anti-social justice videos. The producer subsequently resigned (opens in new tab).
ResetEra itself is a forum set up as a breakout from NeoGAF, which still exists but has arguably been relegated in the pecking order, so it’s perhaps not surprising that NeoGAF is going all in on Hogwarts Legacy. At the time of writing, the top sticky thread was on the game discussions section (opens in new tab) is a Hogwarts Legacy meme competition, while the main user thread is about the game pre-loads going live.
It seems unlikely that the controversy surrounding Rowling’s views will abate, especially as they so intersect with ongoing cultural battles: the biggest narrative in British politics right now is the UK government is blocking the Scottish Parliament’s gender recognition bill (opens in new tab). Rowling is a prominent and outspoken critic of the bill.
Rowling, of course, continues to monetize the Harry Potter and Wizarding World franchises, which is where the arguments for banning or shunning associated products land. But it seems unlikely that the Hogwarts Legacy blacklist will affect the author in any meaningful way. For context, there are several estimates of JK Rowling’s net worth, but the most commonly quoted is around $1 billion. Even if this were inaccurate, it’s fair to say she’s not short of an ivory back scratcher or two.
Warner Bros. meanwhile finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Harry Potter is one of the crown jewels, a series that has made more money than Batman’s. This is getting fuzzy, but by some estimates, Harry Potter alone is larger than the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Stepping away from that is not an option. But it clearly recognizes that the creator’s contemporary reputation is damaging: the entire Wizarding World side of things, when first created, was titled JK Rowling’s Wizarding World.
The media giant can say that Rowling has nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy and bank transfers aside, that is undoubtedly true. But every Harry Potter product is inseparable from the author who created this world and its characters, and at least for ResetEra that means one thing for Hogwarts Legacy: Expelliarmus.