LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Harry Potter’ is one of the most loved book franchises in the world and sold millions of copies. After the massive success of the movie adaptations, HBO Max recently announced that a new TV series of the seven-book series will soon be premiering on the streaming platform. The streamer also made it clear that each season will be based on one of the books in the hit franchise. Although ‘Harry Potter’ has a huge fandom, a large section of fans were not happy with Warner Bros. minting money by coming forward with a series that “woke”. However, a new controversy has erupted now as fans of ‘Harry Potter’ are talking about the casting of Hermione Granger in the upcoming television series.
A lot of social media users began discussions about if Hermione was white or black and argued that a Black actress should be hired to play the aforementioned character. In the books, Hermione’s race is never mentioned and even though JK Rowling wrote “white face” in ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’, the novelist said that it was a reference to a shock.
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Why was there a similar discourse in 2015?
The real discourse started in 2015 when it was announced that South African-British actress Noma Dumezweni was chosen to portray the character in the stage play ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’. Fans didn’t take the news of the casting in a great way and noted that everything doesn’t need to be woke. Now, ahead of casting for the TV series, social media users have once again gathered to debate over the casting of Hermione and noted that a Black actress will be given preference.
One of the fans wrote, “I wouldn't be surprised if Hermione is black in the new Harry Potter reboot TV series.” Another social media user wrote, “Sorry to disappoint some of you but I'd love to see a black Hermione in the upcoming Harry Potter TV series. @jk_rowling even likes it. There was already a black woman playing Hermione in the theatrical play and JK loved it.”
Fans Slam 'woke' Public for their 'bull***t'
There were many who didn’t like the idea of having a Black actress play Hermione Granger and asked the makers if everything has to be “woke” these days. One of the users said, “Wokees screw up everything they touch.” Another social media user tweeted, “Yawn, yawn, yawn. Woke, woke, woke.” Another Twitter user wrote, “No thank you, can we at least honor the books, not everything got to be woke!” Another social media user tweeted, “If they do this, it will fail. Most fans want an accurate depiction of HP with all the little nougats that were left out of the movies, not some woke BS.”
Meanwhile, one of the users joked that the “woke public” has now canceled Emma Watson. The user tweeted, “Bye Emma Watson. You have been canceled by woke.” Another social media user tweeted, “No we f**ing don’t! Take your woke garbage somewhere else.” Another user tweeted, “Is the Harry Potter tv-show gonna have black Hermione? Because if so follow-up question, will it have SPEW.”
‘SPEW’ is one of the most important parts of Hermione’s storyline. The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare is an organization that was founded in 1994 after seeing the amount of injustice that was being done in treating house elves at the 1994 Quidditch World Cup. People believe that the ‘SPEW’ storyline would be very difficult to show if the makers hire a Black actress to play Hermione because of real-life slavery.
So far there have been no comments from HBO or makers about any casting choices. The series is still in its very early stages and it is yet to be seen if a Black actress will be chosen to play Hermione Granger or not.
(This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.)