Avalanche Studios has finally shared more information and gameplay for its highly anticipated Harry Potter video game, Hogwarts Legacy. The game seems like the dream game for fans of Harry Potter. Finally, they will be able to attend Hogwarts as their own personal wizard, learn spells through Defense Against the Dark Arts, hang out in Hogsmeade, and fight dark wizards in a beautiful looking RPG.
Hogwarts Legacy has everything that fans of the franchise have been asking for, but the game is surrounded by controversy that it will have to face as the release date nears. Not only has J.K. Rowling garnered criticism over her comments regarding the trans community, but the story of Hogwarts Legacy has also been called out for being antisemitic. The Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series have been criticized recently as well for a lack of diversity. Hogwarts Legacy is facing an uphill battle with all the controversy surrounding the series, and many fans of Harry Potter have even sworn off the franchise they once loved.
J.K. Rowling's Comments
For the last couple of years, J.K. Rowling has been using her platform to discuss the trans community, and many of her comments have been criticized for being transphobic. She started by responding to an opinion piece about people who menstruate, and went on to tell a joke about how there used to be a word for that. After receiving criticism for her remarks, Rowling chose to double down and went into more detail over her beliefs, which included the notion that she supports the community but that erasing the concept of sex also removes peoples' ability to discuss their lives.
Soon after these tweets, J.K. Rowling continued by crafting a blog post titled TERF Wars in which she outlined why she was worried about trans activism. Her remarks caused huge fan backlash across social media with many calling her out for her transphobia. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint all came out against J.K. Rowling and declared that they stood by the trans community. The star of the Fantastic Beasts series, Eddie Redmayne, also came out against J.K. Rowling, and Warner Bros even released a statement over the remarks.
These statements against J.K. Rowling have not stopped her from continuing to discuss the trans community. In 2020, she released a series of tweets where she claimed that the mental health industry and medication are a new form of conversion therapy, and that many young people are being pushed to hormones or surgery even if that is not best for them. On top of that, Rowling released a book called Trouble Blood in which a serial killer dressed up as a woman to kill other women. This novel sparked even more controversy, as the story seemed to be telling people never to trust a man in a dress. After her transphobic comments, the book felt like another attack on the trans community..
Hogwarts Legacy's Problematic Villains
Not only has J.K. Rowling made remarks that have been considered transphobic, but the plot of Hogwarts Legacy is also being criticized. The story of the game tasks players with preventing a goblin uprising during the late 1800s. The goblins will be teaming up with dark wizards in an attempt to overthrow the systems of power in place in the Wizarding World at that time.
This storyline has been called anti-Semitic and been called out for essentially having the player try to prevent goblins from getting rights. The goblins in Harry Potter have already been criticized for perpetrating anti-Semitic imagery with many believing that the goblins in the movies are nearly identical to Jewish characters in Nazi propaganda. They are presented with hooked noses, and they manage the economy of the Wizarding World, with the films taking this and going even farther with the presentation of goblins..
In Harry Potter, goblins are subservient to humans and are not allowed the same education as the wizards or allowed to have wands of their own. Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the late 1800s, years before Harry was even born. This means that the goblins may have even less rights than they do during the time of Harry Potter. The story of Hogwarts Legacy has players fight back against a goblin rebellion, but all that they are seemingly rebelling against is their lack of rights. The title has painted them as the antagonists when it seems that the player character might be more of an antagonist. Little is known about how the story will play out, but at face value, it seems very problematic.
The Harry Potter Series Has Diversity Problems
The Harry Potter series also has a history of diversity problems and tone-deafness that has been coming to light in recent years. The few people of color that are in the books are underdeveloped and shoehorned in. One of the few Asian characters in Harry Potter is named Cho Chang, who lives in a world filled with fantasy names like Severus Snape or Luna Lovegood - yet Rowling chose to give her the name of Cho Chang instead. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire introduced the Patil sisters, but many have called out the outfits that they wore to the Yule Ball as a mockery of Indian culture. Fantastic Beasts also garnered criticism when it was revealed that Voldemort's snake Nagini was a South Korean woman who will eventually get turned into the pet of Voldemort, as well as a horcrux.
Hogwarts Legacy has a lot of controversy that it has to overcome as the release date nears. J.K. Rowling has continued spreading her rhetoric on Twitter, as most recently she claimed that the South Wales Police LGBTQ+ outreach program was virtue signaling. Further, the story of Hogwarts Legacy is currently under fire, though that may change once players learn the full story. Still, the Harry Potter series has been heavily scrutinized recently over its lack of diversity. The game is facing an uphill battle as more criticism is mounted, and fans will just have to see how Avalanche Studios addresses these concerns.
Hogwarts Legacy is coming Holiday 2022 to Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox one, and Xbox Series X/S