{"id":37146,"date":"2026-08-10T20:29:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=37146"},"modified":"2026-08-10T20:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T15:29:29","slug":"harry-potters-bel-powley-on-jk-rowling-trans-views-strongly-disagree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=37146","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter&#8217;s Bel Powley on JK Rowling Trans Views: &#8216;Strongly Disagree&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/harry-potter\/\" id=\"auto-tag_harry-potter\" data-tag=\"harry-potter\">Harry Potter<\/a>\u201d series star <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/bel-powley\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bel-powley\" data-tag=\"bel-powley\">Bel Powley<\/a> has spoken out about author <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/j-k-rowling\/\" id=\"auto-tag_j-k-rowling\" data-tag=\"j-k-rowling\">J.K. Rowling<\/a>\u2018s controversial views on gender, saying she \u201cstrongly disagrees\u201d with them. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPowley is playing Petunia Dursley in <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/hbo\/\" id=\"auto-tag_hbo\" data-tag=\"hbo\">HBO<\/a>\u2018s highly anticipated TV adaptation of the beloved books, the first season of which is set to premiere this Christmas. In the lead-up to the show, which Rowling is executive producing, members of the new cast \u2014 which also includes John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape and Nick Frost as Hagrid \u2014 have faced questions over their participation due to Rowling\u2019s beliefs, which have been criticized by many as anti-trans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn an interview with <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/tv\/2026\/08\/10\/bel-powley-possession-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Telegraph<\/a> published on Monday, Powley said: \u201cI strongly disagree with J.K. Rowling\u2019s views on gender. I think that the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShe then added, \u201cBut I love \u2018Harry Potter.\u2019 I grew up with the books. I am from that first generation of readers and, again, I love magic and spookiness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLithgow has also spoken about Rowling\u2019s views several times, saying that he even considered walking away from the show but ultimately decided against it. \u201cThe reasons to do it were much, much stronger than the reasons to protest against what Rowling has done and said,\u201d Lithgow told \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/john-lithgow-jk-rowling-views-misrepresented-dumbledore-1236706217\/\">The New Yorker Radio Hour\u201d<\/a> in April. \u201cI do disagree with much of it, much of it I think has been twisted and misrepresented, and she has doubled down on it at her own cost.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series cast also includes Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall and more. \u201cSuccession\u201d helmer Mark Mylod directs, while Francesca Gardiner serves as showrunner. The series has already been renewed for a second season, which will adapt the second book, \u201cHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHarry Potter\u201d series star Bel Powley has spoken out about author J.K. Rowling\u2018s controversial views on gender, saying she \u201cstrongly disagrees\u201d with them. Powley is playing Petunia Dursley in HBO\u2018s highly anticipated TV adaptation of the beloved books, the first season of which is set to premiere this Christmas. In the lead-up to the show,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bel-powley.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}