{"id":44523,"date":"2026-08-14T14:38:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44523"},"modified":"2026-08-14T14:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T09:38:48","slug":"black-mirror-director-ally-pankiw-roasts-harry-potter-tv-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44523","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Black Mirror&#8217; Director Ally Pankiw Roasts &#8216;Harry Potter&#8217; TV Series"},"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<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/ally-pankiw\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ally-pankiw\" data-tag=\"ally-pankiw\">Ally Pankiw<\/a> certainly won\u2019t be working on <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/hbo\/\" id=\"auto-tag_hbo\" data-tag=\"hbo\">HBO<\/a>\u2018s upcoming <em><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/harry-potter\/\" id=\"auto-tag_harry-potter\" data-tag=\"harry-potter\">Harry Potter<\/a><\/em> series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe <em>Black Mirror<\/em> director shared an Instagram post that appears to show an SMS exchange with her agent in which she emphatically turns down an opportunity to board the series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cI have an instinct on the answer but I feel compelled to ask,\u201d writes the agent. \u201c<em>Harry Potter<\/em>? Hard no?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPankiw responds, \u201cAbsolutely fucking not! lol\u2026 (But thank you for asking)\u201d, before the agent writes, \u201cOf course :)\u2026 I assumed as much\u2026 (And agree).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe Canadian director, who also has credits for the likes of <em>The Great<\/em>, shared the post with the caption, \u201cIt is simply this easy to say no to funding transphobia,\u201d and added the opportunity was \u201cfor directing, not acting\u2026 obviously lol\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPankiw\u2019s post drew support from the likes of actor and comedian <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/vic-michaelis\/\" id=\"auto-tag_vic-michaelis\" data-tag=\"vic-michaelis\">Vic Michaelis<\/a>, <em>Welcome to Flatch<\/em> and <em>Big Mistakes<\/em> actress Taylor Ortega and <em>Loki<\/em>, <em>Doctor Who<\/em> and <em>Sex Education<\/em> director <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/kate-herron\/\" id=\"auto-tag_kate-herron\" data-tag=\"kate-herron\">Kate Herron<\/a>. The latter wrote in the comments, \u201cThey\u2019ve asked me twice and I\u2019ve had to explain my answer is never going to change from a no.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tWe\u2019ve reached out to HBO for confirmation Pankiw was on its list of directors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPankiw\u2019s post is a reminder of how the series, <em>Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/em>, has become toxic in many quarters well before its December launch. This is down to <em>Harry Potter<\/em> writer and creator J.K. Rowling\u2019s long-held views towards trans people, which have created distance between her and the movie franchise\u2019s stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tEven the likes of the upcoming series stars Nick Frost, John Lithgow, Paapa Essiedu and Bel Powley have openly disagreed with Rowling. They now face regular online criticism for joining the show.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tWhile Rowling has occasionally fought back against those who dub her transphobic \u2013 even at one point tweeting, \u201cI respect every trans person\u2019s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them\u201d \u2013 she regularly shares anti-trans posts, antagonizes openly trans people and has celebrated a UK high court ruling that women are defined by biological sex.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe <em>Harry Potter<\/em> series is based on Rowling\u2019s blockbuster books. She is an executive producer alongside Neil Blair, Ruth Kenley-Letts of Bront\u00eb Film and TV and David Heyman of Heyday Films.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<em>Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/em>, titled the same as the first movie,\u00a0will debut Christmas Day on HBO and will be available to stream exclusively on\u00a0HBO Max\u00a0globally.<\/p>\n<\/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>Ally Pankiw certainly won\u2019t be working on HBO\u2018s upcoming Harry Potter series. The Black Mirror director shared an Instagram post that appears to show an SMS exchange with her agent in which she emphatically turns down an opportunity to board the series. \u201cI have an instinct on the answer but I feel compelled to ask,\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ally-Pankiw-and-Harry-Potter-TV-series.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44523","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\/44523","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=44523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}