Author J.K. Rowling didn’t mince words after Chris Columbus, who directed the first two “Harry Potter” movies, took issue with her outspoken condemnation of gender ideology.
“As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference,” Ms. Rowling, who wrote the “Harry Potter” bestselling book series, posted Sunday on X.
She ticked off a list of her positions, including “men don’t belong in women’s sports” and “women and girls should have their own public changing rooms and bathrooms,” and asked which ones make the director and the movie franchise’s stars “so miserable.”
“Nothing upsets a weak man more than a woman who makes him feel his cowardice,” Ms. Rowling said. “This is as true of supposed iconoclasts who live in terror of losing the approval of the in-crowd as it is of domestic abusers.”
Her response came after Mr. Columbus told media outlets that it would be “impossible” to reunite the original stars for another film, siding with those who have criticized her opposition to biological men who identify as women in women’s spaces.
“It’s never going to happen,” Mr. Columbus said in The [U.K.] Times. “It’s gotten so complicated with all the political stuff. Everyone in the cast has their own opinion, which is different from her opinion, which makes it impossible.”
Potter-mania may be making a comeback. HBO is developing a live-action television series based on the “Harry Potter” books, featuring a new young cast, spurring speculation that the 2016 play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” could be adapted for film.
“I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art, I think that’s important to do,” Mr. Columbus told Variety. “It’s unfortunate, what’s happened. I certainly don’t agree with what she’s talking about. But it’s just sad, it’s very sad.”
As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference. Which of the following do you imagine makes actors and directors who aren’t involved with the HBO reboot of Harry…
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 1, 2025
The three stars of the 2001-2011 “Harry Potter” films — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — have made pro-transgender comments distancing themselves from Ms. Rowling’s position.
One star who has refused to criticize her is Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy. He is scheduled to reprise his role in the Broadway production of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which opens in November.
Asked about the transgender issue at the Tony Awards ceremony in June, Mr. Felton told Variety that he was “not really that attuned to it” while praising Ms. Rowling.
“I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter,” he said. “She’s responsible for that, so I’m incredibly grateful.”
Ms. Rowling, who may be one of the world’s most prominent critics of the gender-identity movement, began speaking out against trans activism and gender-neutral terms such as “people who menstruate” in 2020.
Mr. Radcliffe came out firmly on the side of transgender rights shortly thereafter.
“I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about,” said Mr. Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, in a 2020 statement.
He continued: “Transgender women are women.”
In her Sunday post, Ms. Rowling said leftists have done more to hurt their political prospects with their embrace of the gender-identity cause than their political foes, citing President Trump and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
The “ideology, and the privileged, blinkered fools pushing it because they suffer zero consequences themselves, have done more damage to the political left’s credibility than Trump and Farage could have achieved in a century,” she said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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