Harry Potter TV star Johnny Flynn criticised for attempt at addressing JK Rowling controversy

Harry Potter TV star Johnny Flynn has been slammed for his “spineless” attempt at addressing the controversy surrounding JK Rowling’s views on the transgender community. 

British actor Flynn, 42, who is best known for his roles in Channel 4 sitcom Lovesick and Anya Taylor-Joy’s 2020 romcom Emma, will star as nefarious villain Lucius Malfoy in the upcoming HBO TV adaptation of Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. The role was played by Jason Isaacs in the film adaptations.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote his new film A Prayer for the Dying, Flynn was asked about working with 14-year-old Lord of the Flies actor Lox Pratt – who will play his son Draco Malfoy on the show – and his experience on Harry Potter so far.

Flynn described Pratt as a “really cool” and “grounded” actor and expressed his hope the cast’s young stars “will have better treatment than previous generations”.

Then, seemingly unprompted, the actor attempted to touch on the controversy surrounding Rowling’s involvement in the project and her well-documented gender-critical views on the trans community.

Rowling is one of the executive producers on the HBO series.

“Obviously, there’s quite a lot of stuff around Jo Rowling,” he said. “I suppose that’s been quite interesting to navigate, the conversations there, but all important conversations to have.”

The actor decided to leave the “important conversations” there, going on to wax lyrical about the “special atmosphere” on set for the stars.

“The people working on this are really, really great and create a really special atmosphere, [like] Francesca [Gardiner] the showrunner, and Mark Mylod and various directors. There’s such care,” he said.

Flynn confirmed that Lucius Malfoy will be appearing in season one, despite not appearing in the book series until the second.

“It’s quite a thing to go do a day and then have a month or so [off] and come back and everybody’s got these really tight relationships. But it’s such a welcoming environment,” he added.

After his remarks were published, social media users were quick to call out Flynn for his watery attempt at addressing Rowling’s views.

“Do these people not realise it doesn’t f****** matter how nice the set is? They’re lining JK Rowling’s pockets,” one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“You know who isn’t having a great time? Trans people in the UK. [The actors involved are] helping someone who gives so much of her money to make their lives harder. But it’s nice that the cis white men are having a good time, I guess,” a second added.

Last year, the Harry Potter author confirmed that she had donated to For Women Scotland (FWS), the gender-critical group who launched a legal campaign which resulted in UK’s Supreme Court ruling that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex, thus excluding trans women.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Rowling announced that she had set up he JK Rowling Women’s Fund, which will financially support the fight “to retain women’s sex-based rights” by funding other gender-critical legal cases. The fund is supported by Rowling’s personal income, much of which is derived from the Harry Potter franchise.

Actors involved in Rowling’s upcoming Harry Potter projects have been called out for effectively helping to line her pockets.

“I’ve never been so disappointed in an artist,” one fan wrote following Flynn’s remarks. “He used to be one of my favorite actors. Loved him in Lovesick, Beast, Emma. It’s so shamelessly selfish to put your career and money ahead of trans lives.”

“He said a lot, without having said anything at all,” another wrote on X.

“Nothing of value on the topic. To say it is an important conversation to have, but offer nothing to it, no argument, no point of view or belief, is just a waste of air. It’s a bailout. A way to dodge the question.”

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