LogFAQs > #980818677

Bladesyphon posted...

WB wanting to buy out the Harry Potter rights from Rowling has very little, if any at all, to do with Rowling's opinions on the trans community and the fear of what it might have on the franchise, and everything to do about WB not wanting to share profits with the creator, especially with Universal's new park opening up with an entire portion of it dedicated to the Wizarding World, as well as the insane success that Hogwarts Legacy received last year.

Its likely both. The amount of damage control that was being run in the lead up to Hogwarts Legacy is something they likely don't want to have to deal with every single time a HP product is released. Separating the product officially from J.K. Rowling is likely a great way to drop all of that. It was never going to make Hogwarts Legacy fail by any stretch, but officially cutting Rowling out is the easiest way to avoid all of this completely unnecessary flak.

It also doesn't help at the same time, Rowling was publicly using the success of this game (which is also loudly decrying her) as vindication for her shit ideals. It's a completely unnecessary huge drag on the IP. Which meant all of the people involved in Hogwarts Legacy had to run a lot of damage control that could have been spent with more productive marketing.

Not to mention, even without the trans stuff, Rowling hasn't been a great boon to HP since the series ended. She insisted on being the primary screenwriter for Fantastic Beasts, and even though the first one showed more HP products should have basically printed money, she wasn't a good screenwriter and it tanked the whole series. The decade before she started her "political" bend, she kept making random retcons she didn't include in the books in sort of a "why aren't you still paying attention to me" kind of thing.

At this point, Rowling is purely a drag on the series. It won't totally sink the franchise, but it's a completely unnecessary hindrance, that will likely cause more problems the longer it goes on for. WB is only interested in their own profits, for sure, but officially separating HP from Rowling is a boost in several different areas.