“I didn’t want to do it”: JK Rowling opens up about absence from ‘Harry Potter Reunion Special’

British author JK Rowling revealed why she was absent from the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, which was released on HBO Max on January 1, 2022.

While speaking on Graham Norton's Radio Show Podcast on August 27, 2022, the 57-year-old author clarified that she was asked to feature but chose not to.

"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 books, 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."

Earlier, it was speculated that JK Rowling would not be appearing on the Harry Potter reunion special because of the controversies she has been a part of for several years. However, insiders told Entertainment Weekly that her team believed the writer's archival footage shown in the special "were adequate."

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JK Rowling's comments have come under fire several times

JK Rowling's Twitter handle has been infamous for several controversies, especially the one stirred in June 2020. The star shared an opinion piece published on the Devex website and slammed it for stating “people who menstruate,” rather than using the word women.

"‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?"

She was bashed online for her "transphobic" comments, but the writer did not hold herself back from expressing her thoughts in detail in a lengthy Twitter thread.

"If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth."

She further went on to say:

"The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women - ie, to male violence - ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences - is a nonsense."

JK Rowling concluded her points by adding:

"I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so."

After her comments, Harry Potter actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint made it public that they do not support JK Rowling's thoughts, while Ralph Fiennes, who plays Voldemort, and Robbie Coltrane, who plays Hagrid, came to her defence.

In the same interview with Graham Norton, Rowling spoke about her equation with social media.

"I try to behave online as I would like others to behave... I've never threatened anyone. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to go to their houses or anything like that. Social media can be a lot of fun, and I do like the pub argument aspect of it. That can be a fun thing to do. I sort of have a love-hate relationship with it now. I can happily go for a few days without getting into a [virtual] pub brawl."

JK Rowling also received death threats after she expressed her thoughts on novelist Salman Rushdie's recent stabbing attack in New York.

On the professional front, the author wrote The Ink Black Heart under her pen name Robert Galbraith, which was published in January 2022.