MOVIE NEWS – Reacting to earlier reports that she was not invited to the Harry Potter Reunion special, J.K. Rowling says it was her own decision not to go.

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has clarified why she was left out of Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. In the special debuting earlier this year on HBO Max, Rowling only appeared briefly in archival footage as she did not join Daniel Radcliffe and other Harry Potter alums for the occasion. At the time, there were reports and speculation that Warner Bros. had blocked her participation due to her controversial views on the transgender community.

In a new interview with Graham Norton, Rowling was asked directly about the reunion special.

Rowling says she was actually invited, but she chose not to go. She says she declined the invitation because the focus of the special edition was not on novels but on feature films.

“I wasn’t (excluded), actually. 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, you know? Quite rightly. I mean, that was what the anniversary was about. So, yeah. No one said don’t come. I was asked to do it, and I decided not to.”

Norton also addressed Rowling’s relationship with the cast of the Harry Potter franchise, as some have publicly condemned the author’s controversial comments in the past.

Rowling would not go into details about which cast members she does or does not speak to regularly but said she keeps in touch with some of them. She also suggests that this has more to do with how well she knows these people personally than the controversies. Here’s what he said when asked if he still talks to any of the Harry Potter actors.

“Yes, I do. Some more than others, but that was always the case. Some I knew better than others.”

Source: YouTube