Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes with more words.
Hogwarts Legacy is an upcoming action role-playing game set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It’s developed by Avalanche Software, published by Warner Bros. Games, and has become a controversial topic.
That’s because of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Over the past few years, she’s come under fire for transphobic comments, a trend that climaxed in 2020 when she wrote an essay where, to summarize, she misgendered trans people, implied that they’re dangerous or confused, and generally peddled in fear-mongering stereotypes that are disproven with a glance at the relevant research or just by talking to trans people about their experiences.
And unlike a lot of other transphobes, Rowling is rich, famous and influential enough to actually sway public opinion; for instance, she recently came out against a bill that would have made it less difficult for Scottish citizens to legally change their gender; as of this writing, the bill has passed the Scottish parliament but was blocked by the government of the United Kingdom by royal assent, effectively neutering the will of the elected legislature.
Does J.K. Rowling make money from Harry Potter Legacy?
Unsurprisingly, this has called for some fans to boycott Hogwarts Legacy, not wanting to give Rowling more money — and therefore more power — than she already has.
But will she actually make money off sales of Hogwarts Legacy? The simple answer is yes, both directly and indirectly. Rowling gets royalties from anything that makes use of the Harry Potter IP, and obviously Hogwarts Legacy is steeped in it. Also, anything that popularizes the world of Harry Potter can only boost sales of other Harry Potter products like the books, movies and theme parks.
So yes, J.K. Rowling will get money from sales of Hogwarts Legacy, to put it simply.
J.K. Rowling is “not involved” with the development of Hogwarts Legacy, but will still make money from it
Short of some unforeseen catastrophe, Rowling will remain an extremely wealthy woman; she’s already worth hundreds of millions of dollars and that probably isn’t changing anytime soon, whether fans boycott Hogwarts Legacy or not.
However, since coming out as a transphobe, Rowling’s reputation has taken a hit. She wasn’t featured in an Harry Potter movie reunion special on HBO Max (Rowling said she chose not to partake because it was about the movies and not the books, but I have an extremely hard time believing the backlash to her bigotry had nothing to do with it), and Warner Bros. Games made sure to say that Rowling “is not directly involved in the creation of the game,” although it’s obviously based on her work.
The back-and-forth over the efficacy of a boycott continues to rage; type in “Harry Potter” or “J.K. Rowling” into Twitter if you want to see some fireworks. I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of it.
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