Is J.K. Rowling Involved in HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Show? Everything We Know

Things might be tense between J.K. Rowling and the rest of the world, but she’s still the first person to turn to when it comes to HBO’s upcoming TV show based on the “Harry Potter” novels.

First coming under fire and getting cancelled back in 2020, the author keeps defending her position and receiving accusations of transphobia in return, remaining at verbal war with Harry Potter’s fans.

Despite not being much around for other Harry Potter-related movies like the Fantastic Beasts spinoff series, Rowling quickly came on board for HBO’s TV adaptation which was met by another wave of backlash towards the upcoming series.

JK Rowling Serves as a Producer for HBO’s Harry Potter Series — but With Benefits

The writer’s role in the upcoming reboot wasn’t revealed until recently, with some reports suggesting that Rowling would executive produce the series.

However, there was an update from HBO’s boss Casey Bloys who back in 2024 revealed that the author had been given more responsibilities for being just one of the producers.

“[She's] been fairly involved in the process of selecting the writer and director. I imagine she’ll have opinions on casting”, Bloys said in an interview with IndieWire back then.

This means that Rowling was given a priority vote since the very start of the show’s development and, potentially, it was her who was making decisions about the series’ casting too.

‘Harry Potter’ Fans Have Been Happy About Casting News So Far — Except for One Single Role

HBO has recently announced the trio of leading actors who will portray Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Earlier, the studio unveiled the names of main Hogwarts staffers, with the ensemble including John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch.

However, even with some obvious issues apart, Essiedu’s casting has been a debatable theme for more than a month now, with fans worrying that this much of a change would actually backfire in a different way rather than just viewers’ discontent.

“The optics for Black Snape are not great. Lower class with an abusive father, a "half-blood" with one side dirty and the other clean, falls in love with his saviour white woman but then joins the Nazis. He then bullies his highschool crushes child for years. The main character Harry Potter hates the main black teacher in the school. I know the big suits really don't care enough to think about these things but I dunno…” Redditor kiaxxl commented in a thread related to the casting news.

“I'm not a book purist or a racist. Essiedu is still a really weird choice for Snape, for many reasons. Firstly, Snape is a creepy, slimy, ugly, greasy man. Pappa Essiedu is a very good-looking guy. Physically he is a bad match, and that's nothing to do with the colour of his skin. I'd say the same if they hired Henry Cavill to play Snape. It's not his colour, it's his looks. You want Pappa Essiedu in your HP series, cast him as Lockhart, or Quirrell, or Lupin, or Sirius, or pretty much anyone else,” hoodie92 chimed in.

When Is ‘Harry Potter’ Season 1 Premiering?

The show’s first season, based on JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone”, is expected to be released on HBO Max sometime in 2026.