In response to criticism of his resolution to take a job in Hogwarts Legacy (opens in new tab), voice actor Sebastian Croft has affirmed his help for trans rights in a press release posted on Twitter.
Croft was introduced (opens in new tab) final week because the actor offering one of many participant character voices in Hogwarts Legacy. As with all issues associated to Harry Potter, it is a pretty high-profile position, however creator JK Rowling’s more and more strident transphobia has blanketed the sport in controversy, and the actor confronted criticism from quite a few folks on social media for participating within the sport.
“I used to be solid on this mission over 3 years in the past, again when all Harry Potter was to me, was the magical world I grew up with,” Croft tweeted (opens in new tab) in response to 1 callout. “This was lengthy earlier than I used to be conscious of JK Rowling’s views. I consider wholeheartedly that trans ladies are ladies and trans males are males.
“I do know way more now than I did 3 years in the past, and hope to study way more within the subsequent 3. I’m actually sorry to anybody damage by this announcement. There isn’t a LGB with out the T.”
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Croft’s position in Hogwarts Legacy is especially galling to on-line critics due to his high-profile “allyship” with the LGBTQ+ group. In June 2022, as an example, he unveiled a “Queer was at all times right here” t-shirt in help of the Select Love and Rainbow Railroad charities.
He additionally stars within the acclaimed Netflix collection Heartstopper (opens in new tab), an “uplifting LGBTQ+ drama about teen friendship and younger romance” based mostly on a webcomic and graphic novel of the identical identify. Heartstopper has been broadly praised for its portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters: Paste Journal, as an example, known as it “an open-armed embrace for queer youth,” and stated it “lays the sturdy foundations of what you’ll be able to solely hope would be the uplifting and inclusive depictions of queer characters for the following era of viewers.”
To lift cash for @chooselove and @RainbowRailroad I designed a T-shirt with two homosexual Dinosaurs kissing, reminding everybody that Queer has at all times been right here.100% of the cash will go to serving to queer refugees fleeing persecution. Click on the hyperlink 💖🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️https://t.co/FgjpzExj27 pic.twitter.com/WjT7UPZN4PJune 17, 2022
A lot of the responses to Croft’s assertion are constructive, though not everyone seems to be satisfied. Just a few level out that Rowling has been vocally transphobic for years now and say that even when he by some means wasn’t conscious of that, he ought to’ve regarded into it earlier than he took the job; naturally, there are others who criticize his assertion for what they understand as a cave-in to public opinion.
These voices are comparatively few in quantity, however they illustrate the problem going through Hogwarts Legacy and all concerned with it. Warner Bros. has tried to distance the sport from Rowling, however the creator’s relentless anti-trans outbursts have, for a large number of folks, completely poisoned her legacy and the whole lot hooked up to it. Simon Pegg (opens in new tab), as an example, confronted related unfavorable reactions to the information that he is voicing Hogwarts headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black within the sport.
Croft is way from the primary actor concerned a Harry Potter mission to talk out in opposition to Rowling’s transphobia: Harry Potter movie leads Daniel Radcliffe (opens in new tab), Rupert Grint (opens in new tab), and Emma Watson (opens in new tab) have all made statements in help of trans rights in recent times.
Regardless of the controversy, although, Hogwarts Legacy appears prone to be successful—with simply over three weeks to go earlier than its February 10 launch, it stays the number-one wishlisted sport on Steam.