JK Rowling to Be Tapped by Warner Discovery CEO for New Harry Potter Content for HBO Max

CEO of the recently merged Warner Bros. Discovery media company will reportedly be meeting with famed author JK Rowling to discuss producing new Harry Potter content for the streaming platform HBO Max.

People familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that David Zaslav plans to meet with the controversial author in the coming weeks regarding the subject. Warner Bros. made all seven of the wizarding franchise’s movies.

HBO Max, where this new content is proposed to appear, had premiered the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rowling was notably excluded from this anniversary special, only appearing in archived footage from the creation of the first movie.

Rowling has been at the center of numerous controversies over the years due to her stance regarding biological men in women’s spaces and transgender people.

The author has been doxxed, attacked on social media, and cancelled by those that previously loved her works.

In one recently published book, an author fantasized about killing Rowling, with the story centering around three transgender individuals. Rowling’s stance on transgender people has gotten her labelled as a “TERF,” or Trans-exclusionary radical feminist.” She recently gathered with a group of gender critical women in the UK, embracing the cause of being a women’s rights campaigner.

In one example of her supposed controversial statements, Rowling spoke out against a bill that would allow biological men to identify as women and be admitted into female prisons in the UK.

Amidst the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery, the ill-fated CNN+ streaming service saw the chopping block, around a month after its chaotic launch.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Zaslav and his team have been searching for ways to cut waste from the companies under the merger umbrella, abandoning projects deemed unnecessary, and attempting to boost better performing titles and products, like theater films and HBO Max original shows.