Harry Potter's Hogwarts Legacy video game will include transgender character options

3 March 2021, 11:08

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By Sam Prance

Hogwarts Legacy is looking to be as inclusive as possible in spite of JK Rowling's transphobic remarks.

Harry Potter's new Hogwarts Legacy video game will reportedly allow users to create transgender and cisgender characters.

Over the past few years, Harry Potter author JK Rowling has come under fire for several transphobic actions and remarks. In 2019, JK publicly defended researcher, Maya Forstater, who was fired for making multiple transphobic comments, she was then caught liking transphobic tweets and last year she was called out after making transphobic comments of her own.

Now, the Harry Potter franchise appears to be distancing itself from Rowling's transphobia with its upcoming 2022 video game.

READ MORE: Daniel Radcliffe defends trans people following JK Rowling's transphobic comments

According to Bloomberg, Hogwarts Legacy will be gender inclusive. Sources told the publication: "When players start up the game, they will be able to create a character that has a masculine or feminine voice no matter what their body looks like." In other words, there is space to make characters that don't conform to traditional gender binaries.

The sources also claimed: "Players will then get to select one of two options -- “witch” or “wizard” -- that will determine the dorm they get placed in at the magical school of Hogwarts and how they are addressed by other characters in the game." So, while the dorms are gendered in binaries, the characters themselves appear to be less so.

It's currently unclear if the game will only include he/she pronouns or make space for they/them pronouns as well.

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These features aren't new to the video-gaming world. However, given Rowling's transphobic remarks, it's good to see that the team behind Hogwarts Legacy are looking to make steps not to exclude trans fans.

Hogwarts Legacy was initially scheduled to come out in 2021 but it has since been pushed back to 2022.

What do you think? Are you excited for Hogwarts Legacy?