Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Producer?

For all topics regarding speculative fiction of every stripe. Otherwise known as the Geek Cave.
User avatar
Winter
Captain
Posts: 2304
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:01 pm

Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Producer?

Post by Winter »

You all know I'm a transwoman, and such I have issues with many stupid comments made by JK Rowling you seems to have made being anti-trans a life style choice to the point that even Elon Musk told her to tone it down. I still love the Harry Potter books though and it's easy to divorse the art from the artist here which was helped by most of the actors of the films stating to be against Rowling in this matter and have shown their support for transmen and transwomen.

But, Rowling seems determined to stand in the fire and complain how hot it is and with her being an executive producer for the upcoming TV Series Adaptation of HP I'm worried.

Part of me hopes that Rowling won't have to much control over the show and might be people who sympathizes with the people their boss is hurting and work in a few trans actors and present them in a positive light. Something similar was done in Hogwart's Legacy which included the first trans character in the series played by a trans woman which while not great I did appetite as it was the developers basically going "We don't agree with the idiot who made this series, we like and respect transgenders."

However, as each day goes on Rowling seems more and more determined to make herself look worse and worse and I fear that this will effect the show she's producing.

I mean, we've seen writers use their stories to rant about anything and everything that bugs them and even if we agree or at least understand what they're trying to say most of the time it's annoying. The best example I can think of is Force of Nature from Star Trek which was an environmental message that wanted to talk about Climate Change but did so badly. Or even in stories that handled it well like Star Trek The Voyage Home aka the Save the Wales movie it's still kind of annoying cause the story is hitting us over the head with this message.

Those are messages that most of us agree with and often it more of a "I get what you're trying to say but you're saying it in a very stupid and silly way"... Then we have the stupid ones who rant about things they don't like.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Othello was an adaptation of "A Moorish Captain" by Cinthio. Othello is often criticized today because of the more.. iffy takes on the character of Othello and the treatment of the female character but compared to the original... yikes!

To sum up A Moorish Captain and it's views on Othello's character and his relationship with Desdemona, the original story ended with Desdemona lecturing the audience on why interracial marriage is evil. On top of that Shakespeare went out of his way to humanize Othello which included giving the character a name because in the original short story he didn't actually have one.

I think it's obvious why I brought this up, A Moorish Captain is a story written that reflects the disdain for people of color and for interracial relationships. And it's not a story most people even know about. While not perfect Shakespeare's Othello sides with the title character and those who mistreat and hate him are evil. Iago in the play is also rather interesting as we're never given an explanation as to why he does what he does. We don't know why he seems to hate Othello and is so determined to ruin his life and in the end he refuses to explain himself.

Some think he's jealous of Othello and all he has as the 2001 movie adaptation, simply titled O, implied. Others think that Iago is actually in love with Othello and is ruining his life because he can never have him. But personally, I see Iago as someone who just hates Othello because he's Moorish. Bigotry makes no sense to anyone smart enough to know it's stupid, we see someone hurting other people for being different in someway they don't approve of and will go out of their way to hurt those people for no real reason. That sounds just like what Iago does and it's what I think Shakespeare is aiming for.

Rowling has now become Iago, hating on transwomen for the "crime" of being transwomen and I fear she will impose those ideas in the TV Series.

Am I overthinking this? Will HBO really just let Rowling force her terrible views on transgenders into a show they hope to get money on?
User avatar
McAvoy
Captain
Posts: 3873
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:55 am
Location: East Windsor, NJ

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by McAvoy »

I suspect that she will be given the Gene Roddenberry treatment post TMP. As in she will make her recommendations good or bad and maybe they will be used. That her role.

As far what she wrote being followed. That remains to be seen.
I got nothing to say here.
User avatar
Winter
Captain
Posts: 2304
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:01 pm

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by Winter »

McAvoy wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2024 4:59 am I suspect that she will be given the Gene Roddenberry treatment post TMP. As in she will make her recommendations good or bad and maybe they will be used. That her role.

As far what she wrote being followed. That remains to be seen.
Hm, you know I actually had a number of ideas for a Harry Potter TV series. It would be a overall faithful adaptation of the books with only a few minor changes here and there (like taking the time to properly buildup Harry and Ginny's relationship and having Ron say Voldemort's name in season 5) but mostly it would remain unchanged from how this was presented in the originals.

One thing I found interesting is that I realized that I didn't need to many episodes for the show to work. I realized that all I needed was 3 or 4 feature length episodes for each season, similar to Sherlock. The thing about Rowling's writing is she developed a bad habit of creating a lot of padding by way of exposition dumps done in the narration. For example, chapter 2 in The Goblet of Fire, takes about 10 pages long. I was able to rework it into a 3 or 5 minute scene easily without losing what the chapter was trying to convey.

Hell, I got the first chapter of GOF down to 7 minutes despite it being about 15 pages long. I love these books but they do not need to be over 500 pages long. They could be done in 300 and we would have gotten the same overall story.
stryke
Captain
Posts: 652
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:42 am

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by stryke »

Winter wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2024 4:09 am Rowling has now become Iago, hating on transwomen for the "crime" of being transwomen and I fear she will impose those ideas in the TV Series.

Am I overthinking this? Will HBO really just let Rowling force her terrible views on transgenders into a show they hope to get money on?
As you say it's about money, and there's no profit to be made in letting Rowling turn the show into her soapbox of hatred.

Based on that I'll be astounded if it even comes up by even the slightest implication as to be a bad thing so no worries there. Worse thing will be seeing her name in the credits every episode.

I'm more worried about the kids honnestly. I'm not a parent, but if I was, I'd wouldn't let my kids near this project with a ten-foot barge pole given how it's going to tar them by association, even letting aside the issues you already experience being a child actor on a long running project.
User avatar
hammerofglass
Captain
Posts: 2609
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:17 pm
Location: Corning, NY

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by hammerofglass »

I doubt WB or HBO would let her do that, they have the demographic numbers in front of them and know transphobia won't fly with their target audience.

What I'm wondering is if it will reflect how her general gender politics have shifted as she falls down the transphobia pipeline. Like can you imagine 2024 Rowling having the kids play in a sport that isn't sex segregated?
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
Thebestoftherest
Captain
Posts: 3733
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:22 pm

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by Thebestoftherest »

I do wonder if it flop it might push Harry out of the cultural zietguise or get Rowling to sellm

You say that Hammer, but remember thank to that bastard Zaslav, WB is almost exclusively ran by out of touch old rich white men, so they live I a different reality than the rest of us.
User avatar
hammerofglass
Captain
Posts: 2609
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:17 pm
Location: Corning, NY

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by hammerofglass »

Thebestoftherest wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2024 12:44 pm I do wonder if it flop it might push Harry out of the cultural zietguise or get Rowling to sellm

You say that Hammer, but remember thank to that bastard Zaslav, WB is almost exclusively ran by out of touch old rich white men, so they live I a different reality than the rest of us.
They're out of touch but they're also sociopathic parasites whose bread and butter is seeing which way the wind is blowing. They saw that shit where Netflix pissed everyone off with Chappelle's transphobic rants and lost money doing it, they'd be terribly bad at their one job if they made the same mistake.
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
Thebestoftherest
Captain
Posts: 3733
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2019 2:22 pm

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by Thebestoftherest »

With all the controversy and the fact they had two successful streaming service combine them and end up worst off than if they did not merge them, what make you think they are NOT bad at their jobs.
User avatar
hammerofglass
Captain
Posts: 2609
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:17 pm
Location: Corning, NY

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by hammerofglass »

Touché.
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
Nobody700
Captain
Posts: 557
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:58 pm

Re: Serious Question: How Do You Think The Upcoming Harry Potter TV Series Turn Out with Rowling as an Executive Produce

Post by Nobody700 »

I await when the show is cancelled at the last minute for tax reasons.
Science Fiction is a genre where anything can happen. Just make sure what happens is enjoyable for yourself and your audience.
Post Reply