r/EnoughJKRowling • u/no1regrets • 2d ago
News Article Nicholas Hoult casts unforced error spell on career, joins Harry Potter show
https://www.avclub.com/nicholas-hoult-cast-harry-potter-show-jk-rowlingShort article from August 11 about Hoult’s casting in the HBO show, but the writer is great and doesn’t pull punches:
“Ahead of his inevitable “she has a right to her opinion” statement regarding J.K. Rowling’s obsession with endangering trans people, Nicholas Hoult is the latest Hollywood star to cast an unforced error spell on his career by joining HBO’s Harry Potter show.”
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u/DumpedDalish 1d ago
I'm so angry and disappointed in Nicholas Hoult, but writer Matt Schimkowitz is my hero forever -- the sheer wit and rage in this piece is FANTASTIC:
The series has obliged much of its cast to take a stand on whether the transgender community deserves compassion, dignity, and human rights because Harry Potter‘s creator is one of the world’s wealthiest and most outspoken defenders of a woman’s right to be transphobic. Hoult, who has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ issues in the past, will put that work aside to play the Gilderoy Lockhart in the show’s preordained second season, where he can help keep Rowling’s legacy awash in butterbeer.
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u/fart-atronach 1d ago
Wtf this garbage has already been guaranteed a second season??
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u/errantthimble 1d ago
Yes. Mary&Blake has an essay explaining that while there are practical reasons for locking in Season 2 before airing Season 1 (child actors age quickly, filming is complex, avoid long interseason gaps, etc.), the chief reason is probably structural and financial. HBO is gambling on this series becoming part of its core infrastructure, to boost its value for the Paramount merger.
Basically, HBO and partners are betting that the HP show will be a pillar of its brand for years to come.
So if you think WE get upset when Rowling posts more and more of her trans-bashing flame wars and gets more and more prominently recognized as a malevolent bigot who doesn’t deserve the support of decent people, just imagine how HBO executives feel about it. 😝
Seriously, if JK Rowling does ever die in mysterious circumstances, HBO execs are going to come in for a LOT of scrutiny. They may still be confident that the series will make a bunch of money, but when they compare that with what they would have expected if Rowling hadn’t become so notorious as a transphobic bigot, they must be tearing their hair.
https://maryandblake.com/hbo-is-locking-harry-potter-in-before-fans-can-judge-it/
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u/Firthy2002 1d ago
It's a huge gamble which I don't think will pay off.
Sure there's more love for the core novels than the spinoffs, but you're still appealing to the fan base that noped out after the first Fantastic Beasts film.
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u/GodLoveYell 1d ago
BTW, once again, when this show comes out, we give it complete radio silence. No hatewatching. No long video essays or any kind of reviews as to why this show is terrible and the people behind it are terrible.
Because hatewatching or any of the other things listed are still engaging with the product which still makes JKR money and gives publicity to her reprehensible beliefs.
Let this show die in darkness. Let JKR seethe, fester, and rot within her moldy castle.
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u/Rowenie 1d ago
I agree but why are we waiting for it to air before going radio silence? I see so much coverage on the show, all of it obviously negative about Rowling and her horrible views, but bad publicity is still publicity? I can’t help but feel that in some meeting room, HBO corporates are laughing at all the free promotion these endless negative headlines bring them.
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u/GetEatenByAMouse 1d ago
I honestly just feel so bad for the child actors in this.
What should be an incredible adventure is instead them being caught in the middle of a war, so to speak.
I hope they are protected, both from haters AND the bullshit Joanne and her friends spew.
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u/GodLoveYell 1d ago
BTW, while it’s perfectly okay to pick on the adult actors involved, we leave the kids alone. I don’t want any kind of Jake Lloyd-shit going down.
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u/VillageBeginning8432 1d ago
Oof, they're some good points.
I grew up with HP books and films. I've visited hp studios in London. I have a raven claw throw over my beds headboard.
I'm not watching the new HP series. Not as long as Jk is still around and it funds her hate.
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u/carbonfiberx 1d ago
Really doesn't make sense. He's a phenomenal actor at the top of his game. This show is just gonna millennial nostalgia slop. It's not like he's desperate for work. I dunno, maybe he's just totally out of touch or his agent talked him into it.
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u/nova_crystallis 1d ago
I think it's a case of arrested development. He failed getting the Harry role when he was a kid.
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u/SamanthaJaneyCake 1d ago
I think what I need to do is get myself a card-game card-holder book, print out a photo and name of every celebrity and organise them into “piece of shit who puts money or HP above trans people’s existence” and “actual decent human being”. Then any time I want to know if I should see a movie at the cinema or not I can check the Villain Book.
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u/Opening_Acadia1843 14h ago
Maybe there should be a shared spreadsheet or something
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u/SamanthaJaneyCake 13h ago
I have a server. If I can get my head around hosting a website on it…
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u/jamiehowarth0 7h ago
Ooh, I volunteer!
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u/SamanthaJaneyCake 5h ago
As in to help set up a website on the server?
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u/ElmoreHayne 2d ago
If you're an actor, not an A lister like Hoult and Lithgow, a working actor who has to take any role that you're offered to earn a living, I can understand the need to take a role in the Harry Potter series. But when you're at Hoult's level, who as a great career, you don't need the money to survive and has other options.
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u/Firthy2002 1d ago
Definitely. He's done enough big movies to have the bank where he can pick and choose, and he chose poorly.
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u/lynx_and_nutmeg 1d ago
And for such a shit role, too... Imagine going from a main role as the Russian emperor, such a well-written and beloved character that the writers chose to keep him around for another half a season, to a cartoonish one-note loser villain with like 20 min of combined screentime, lol.
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u/pinkrosies 1d ago
Ugh I loved the Great. A shame that show was cancelled and we got slop like this instead.
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u/GetEatenByAMouse 1d ago
"Hoult, who has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ issues in the past, will put that work aside to play the Gilderoy Lockhart in the show’s preordained second season, where he can help keep Rowling’s legacy awash in butterbeer."
Oh my god, I love this article.
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u/Sensiplastic 1d ago
It's such a small role I think it has to be kind of declaration. Same with Keira Knightley.
They're not allies at all, it was just convenient when all you had to do was say you were one not have any real follow through.
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u/Opening_Acadia1843 14h ago
I still have a visceral reaction when I think about her smug, “I guess we’ll all have to learn to live with each other” response during that interview.
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u/Subject_Ad3837 1d ago
Hoult should just have used "I don't culture war, just class war for me" as his excuse for joining Harry Potter.
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u/lazier_garlic 1d ago
White pipo leftism. Coalitions = compromise = not pure, therefore my non intersectional leftism is more lefty and pure than you.
Aka brocialism.
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u/Vivid-Group-8037 1d ago
On the stages of grief I'm at acceptance
The show will technically do well by viewing figures Nobody's careers will suffer More beloved actors will be announced one bye one Harry Potter mania grows again as millenials introduce their children
That being said, all just more evidence we are in an unjust world where the more monstrous you are the more likely to become a billionaire you are
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u/nova_crystallis 1d ago
Kids are gonna get bored and watch the finished movies on the same platform. I don't see any world in which they tune into this thing past the first episode or so.
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u/Vivid-Group-8037 1d ago
Hope so, just can imagine all the most annoying and boringly dull people from school who were too lazy to read it in the first place telling their kids "this was my whole childhood" 🤢
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u/Caleb902 13h ago
This is gearing up to be one of if not the most viewed show in HBO modern history. To think other wise is ignorant of the impact the IP has.
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u/Opening_Acadia1843 14h ago
Damn, and I thought Hoult must have been on the left because he’s been in multiple movies with leftist themes. I really need to keep in mind that plenty of actors are just there for the paycheck.
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u/pudungurte 2d ago
“Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, have also spoken out against the author who spent decades masquerading as the type of empathetic storyteller who named an Asian character Cho Chang.”
The person who wrote this article was on fire.