This past New Year’s Day, HBO MAX aired the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special. It was nice to see the actors talking about the roles that made most of them household names. With one notable omission, author J.K. Rowling.
This twenty-year reunion celebrated the Harry Potter films which first debuted in 2001. Most of the stars returned for the reunion, but one big player in the HP world was absent.
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling was nowhere to be found. shortly before the reunion aired, Rowling had controversy in the public eye after a few comments she made regarding her beliefs and stances on very sensitive topics.
Since the drama, Rowling’s remained fairly mum about the entire situation, and furthermore hasn’t commented a thing about her absence from the special. Most outlets deduced that due to her personal controversies, she was excluded from the reunion.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. J.K. Rowling recently broke her silence on why she didn’t appear in Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts.
In an interview with Graham Norton for his Virgin Radio UK show, J.K. Rowling firmly stated that it was her who chose not to appear, rather than being banned from the special:
“I was asked to be on that and I decided I didn’t want to do it. I thought it was about the films more than the book, quite rightly, that was what the anniversary was about.
No one said don’t [do it]… I was asked to do it and I decided not to.”
In terms of her public controversies, Rowling’s not waivered on her stances, despite a few of the actors making statements against them.
