When HBO Max bowed in late May, subscribers were in for a surprise: All eight Harry Potter movies were on there, sharing space with DC movies, Looney Tunes, Adult Swim, TCM oldies, and HBO content. If that seemed too good to be true, it was, sort of: As per Entertainment Weekly, the filmic wing of the deathless franchise will be vanishing from the streamer on August 25, after only three months online.
The arrival of the Potter films — which ran from 2001 to 2011, and which made its central trio unimaginably wealthy — on the new streaming service wound up coming at a strange time. Mere weeks after HBO Max launch, Potter creator, J.K. Rowling faced severe backlash after making controversial comments about the trans community. The author has not backed off of her comments but rather doubled, tripled, quadrupled down, even prompting her still young-ish cast members — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint among them — to speak up in defense of trans people.
Potter fan sites have also criticized Rowling’s comments, some of them even removing her name from their coffers entirely, as though their favorite franchise has no creator. That’s how strong Potter love is. In any case, you have a month and change to binge those eight movies, and good luck because most of them are quite long. But don’t worry; surely they’ll be back.
(Via EW)
