‘Harry Potter’ Author J.K. Rowling Talks Jewish Wizards, Gay Dumbledore, Hogwarts Sequel, Wiccans [Video]


When J.K. Rowling first conjured up the concept of Harry Potter, she never imagined that the little boy with an unusual heritage would be the take-off point for everything from cultural commentary to college courses. But even after Rowling’s original Harry Potter books and films have concluded, the celebrity author is delighting in building up the imaginary world that contains Muggles, Hogwarts, and enchanted owls, reported the Daily Beast.

A social media maven, Rowling is conscientious about responding to fan questions. So when a Muggle asked whether Jewish wizards existed at Hogwarts, she was prompt to respond with an affirmative.

“Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard,” clarified Rowling.

That succinct response resulted in a blizzard of queries from her Twitter followers, which number almost four million.

“To everyone asking whether their religion/belief/non-belief system is represented at Hogwarts: the only people I never imagined there are Wiccans.”

Fleshing out the issue of religion at Hogwarts isn’t the only cultural commentary that Rowling has offered in her post-Potter years.

She also attracted attention when she shared the news that Dumbledore, the popular sorcerer headmaster, is gay.

When Rowling escorted Dumbledore out of the closet, Andrew Slack, head of the Harry Potter Alliance, revealed the clues that he had previously found about the announcement to the Los Angeles Times.

“After she outed Dumbledore, Rowling said that she viewed the whole series as a prolonged treatise on tolerance. Dumbledore is the personification of this. Like the LGBT community that has time and again used its own oppression to fight for the equality of others, Dumbledore was a champion for the rights of werewolves, giants, house elves, muggle-borns, centaurs, merpeople — even alternative marriage.”

“When it came time to decide whether the marriage between Lupin the werewolf and Tonks the full-blooded witch could be considered natural, Professor Minerva McGonagall said, ‘Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world.'”

And while she’s been dedicated to detailing the back-story of popular Potter characters, Rowling also is crafting a screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The upcoming spinoff results from a textbook included in the original Harry Potter series.

The Harry Potter sequel will be directed by David Yates, according to IMDB. Current project date is November 2016, and the summary conjures up delightful images of Big Apple witches.

“The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York’s secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school.”

Will any of the original cast appear in the sequel? As the Inquisitr reported, both Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have graduated from Hogwarts to appear in a variety of adult films. Radcliffe has even sought opportunities to bare all of his assets.

“I did three films last year and I got naked in all of them. I think getting naked on a stage gets rid of all your inhibitions.”

What do you think? Would you like to see Daniel and Emma in the sequel? Post your comments below.

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]

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