At least some people have turned down HBO's Harry Potter series

TV directors Ally Pankiw and Kate Herron both say they've turned down offers to work on the series over J.K. Rowling's transphobia.

By Drew Gillis  |  August 14, 2026 | 11:49am
Image courtesy of HBO
News News Harry Potter
At least some people have turned down HBO's Harry Potter series

Much has been made—and much more likely will be made—about the people who have gone on the record denouncing J.K. Rowling’s beliefs on trans people while also performing in a project that stands to greatly enrich her. And hey, we’re sure those people are also being paid pretty well while they perform this cognitive dissonance. But believe it or not, there are people in Hollywood who have said no to this particular paycheck and at least one of them says “You can do it too!” 

Yesterday, TV director Ally Pankiw, who has worked on shows like Black Mirror and The Great and wrote and directed the film I Used To Be Funny, posted screenshots of a text exchange that Variety attributes to the director and a WME agent. “I have an instinct on the answer but I feel compelled to ask Harry Potter? Hard no?” reads one text message posted to Instagram, to which Pankiw responds, “Absolutely fucking not! lol (But thank you for asking)”. The rep responds: “Of course 🙂 I assumed as much (And agree)”. In the caption, Pankiw wrote, “It simply is this easy to say no to funding transphobia! (Also this was for directing, not acting… obviously lol)”.

In the comments of her post, Loki director Kate Herron wrote, “Yeah thank you exactly! Respect and love to you Ally. They’ve asked me twice and I’ve had to explain my answer is never gonna change from a no.” (Also in the comments: Patti Harrison claiming to be playing Rita Skeeter in the series.) In her story, Pankiw praised Herron for saying no twice, writing, “And that’s actually hard!” It’s certainly got to be harder than taking and defending the paycheck. 

 
Join the discussion...
Keep scrolling for more great stories.