John Lithgow Considered Quitting ‘Harry Potter’ Series

John Lithgow considered quitting HBO Max’s upcoming Harry Potter series, in which he’s to play Albus Dumbledore, after fans bemoaned Potter author J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric. Ultimately he decided not to step away, he recently told The New York Times, instead accepting the fact that “every interview I will ever do for the rest of my life this will come up.”

Lithgow affirmed in the article that he does not agree with the beliefs held by Rowling, a person he’s never met. Moreover, he said he views the series as “clearly on the side of the angels, against intolerance and bigotry.”

In April, Lithgow said he couldn’t understand why he was receiving backlash for accepting the Dumbledore role. A friend of his, who has a trans daughter, had shared an open letter to Lithgow asking him to walk away from the series. “I thought, why is this a factor at all?” he said to The Times in the U.K. “I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her and I’m curious to talk to her.”

At the time, the actor, now 80, did soul-searching, he said, as he recognized that Dumbledore is “probably the last major role” he’d play. “It’s an eight-year commitment so I was just thinking about mortality and that this is a very good winding-down role,” he said at the time.

The series, for which Rowling is an executive producer, will premiere in 2027. HBO has planned to film and run seven seasons. Wary of the backlash, HBO’s chief content officer Casey Bloys felt the need to discuss the series’ content on a podcast. “It’s pretty clear that those are her personal, political views,” Bloys said in May. “She’s entitled to them. Harry Potter is not secretly being infused with anything. And if you want to debate her, you can go on Twitter.”

Rowling has angered both the public and previous Potter stars in recent years by taking a hardline against trans people. Pedro Pascal called her financial connection to a For Women Scotland campaign “awful disgusting SHIT.” Daniel Radcliffe, who played Potter in the movies, said that Rowling’s rhetoric “makes [him] really sad.” Emma Watson, the movies’ Hermione Granger, said that a conversation with Rowling about her beliefs “was never made possible.” And Keira Knightley, who was cast for an audiobook edition of the Harry Potter books, said she was unaware of Rowling’s views, asking that everyone find respect for one another.