Shaun of the Dead actor Nick Frost has disabled comments on a post celebrating his casting in HBO’s Harry Potter series, after fans reacted with upset over his involvement.
HBO announced yesterday (14 April) that the 53-year-old British actor, known for Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, will star as half-giant Rubeus Hagrid in its TV adaptation of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.
While mega fans of Rowling’s wizarding world have praised HBO’s casting team for lining up Frost as Hagrid, others have taken aim at Frost and his fellow future Harry Potter stars over their involvement in a series being executively produced by Rowling.
JK Rowling has repeatedly made her ‘gender-critical’ views on the transgender community clear, while she was recently criticised by asexual campaigners for branding International Asexuality Day “fake oppression” day.
Comments have now been disabled on his celebration post after fans pointed out that he would be working on a Rowling project.
Still, those disappointed in the star’s decision to be involved in Rowling’s work have begun flooding the comment sections on his other posts, with one reading: “You always were an artist I highly admired. Please think again if you want to get involved with that woman, you might lose a lot of fans with that decision.”
To be clear, they aren’t upset at the casting, they’re upset that Rowling is involved at all.
I think I’m more annoyed that they’re re-doing the franchise at all. Why bother? It’s been done! Move on! Try something that hasn’t been done already.
They’re re-doing it because Rowling wants a new production with actors who aren’t vocally outspoken in support of LGBTQ+, she came out and said it explicitly. This further doubles down that anyone involved in this production is an absolute pelican of a human being and should be shamed.
Nick Frost isn’t in support of LGBTQ+? That’s kind of shocking…
No, not that he’s not in support of LGBTQ, but that he hasn’t been outspoken in his distaste for Rowling’s support of anti-LGBTQ policy and rhetoric, like the 3 main actors in the HP movies were.
Ah, got it. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. ;)
In the highly likely event of it being worse than the original films, would it be go broke for not going woke?
But $$$$
Culture has fossilised. Nothing new is being made, just rehashes of the same “safe” shite because bigwigs know the stuff that already exists will make them that sweet, sweet money.
The only way to free ourselves is to stop consuming the overdone cash cow slop. If we don’t vote with our wallets and make it not profitable for them, it will never stop. They’ll keep regurgitating the same “remakes and reboots” until society collapses. Resist FOMO. Stop consuming.
Also fuck Rowling.
I really liked Tenet
This is why I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch all the new Star Wars stuff. Or all the new Lord of the Rings stuff. Or all the new Marvel stuff. It’s just all a fuckin hokey cash grab. However, there are still a LOT of new things coming out that are great. I watch a new (to me) movie just about every night, and there’s been some real gems.
People don’t spend money to go see “new” shit, but do spend money to see rehashed “safe” shit, so why would studios bother trying to make anything else.
Like it or not, money talks. And the public has overwhelmingly said this is what they prefer.
And the public has overwhelmingly said this is what they prefer.
It’s the other way around.
Studios used to take chances on new IP’s back in the day when they didn’t have to make a billion dollars at the box office just to “break even” (I’m being a tad hyperbolic about that number). There’s a clip of Matt Damon on ‘Hot Ones’ breaking this down. For those who can’t (or don’t want to) click the link, it basically goes like this:
In the days before the streaming boom, a movie studio could afford to spend a bunch of money producing and marketing an original movie, knowing that what they sank into production and advertising would most likely be recouped in video rentals, in the event that the movie under-performed at the box office. Once physical movie rentals went away, so did all that back end money, and studios became a lot more hesitant to take those kinds of risks. The end result was that studios started buying existing IP’s that were already popular and producing those almost exclusively. The final death throes of video rental stores happened in the mid-to-late 2000s (think MCU Phase 1 era), and that’s where we saw the big increase in reboots, sequels, prequels, franchises, and cinematic universes.
So basically, the majority of big studios lost a ton of revenue from the defunct video rental business, so they did a bunch of market research to find out what people liked (or rather, what made the most money), then decided that was pretty much all they were going to make from then on. The public ate it up for the same reason they eat junk food or smoke meth; it has no substance, but it has all the right ingredients to trigger a dopamine response.
The fault here lies with the dealer, not the junkie.
Money talks if profit is the only goal, and all money talks is bullshit.
profit is the only goal
Congratulations, you just discovered the goals of studio executives.
I’ll add that the cost to see anything is so freakn high right now that no one wants to chance losing so much money on something new that turns out to be a dud. So safe it is!
Yes, it seems strange to re-make the franchise at this time. All 7 novels were adapted into a highly successful film series, so it’s not as though it is like The Chronicles of Narnia where no adaptation has ever completed the series.
I heard a rumour that Rowling wants to distance the brand from Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint.
Exactly, or works that have never even been attempted and there are a BUNCH of those.
Need a replacement for Game of Thrones? How about Elric of Melniboné?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elric_of_Melniboné
Thieve’s World?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thieves'_World
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser
Want something with a youth hook like Harry Potter? The Belgariad and Malloreon by David and Leigh Eddings:~~https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belgariad~~
~~https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malloreon~~
Replacing one problematic author with one with different problems isn’t a solution.
How about Roger Zelazny and the Chronicles of Amber? Still safe?
If Rowling is too toxic, probably best to avoid the Eddings too. Feist’s Riftwar instead perhaps
Didn’t they keep a kid locked in a cage in their basement?
I didn’t know that before enjoying most of their stuff, as a kid, but damn.
Never heard about that, and years before he was published…
YES RIFTWAR
I really think a lot of piers anthony would be perfect for anime adaptions.
Ooh, yeah, I could see that. Get Studio Ghibli on it…
How about Elric of Melniboné?
I would burn entire continents to ash for a good Elric series. Hell, any of the Eternal Champions would be sick.
How about Elric of Melniboné?
How many more Targaryens and Geralts must we endure before this is adapted?
Ya but… Money
honestly, at this point, I feel like they’ll just ruin whatever I liked and they touch.
I’m still salty at what “they” did to Tom Bombadill. did him dirty, they did.
You think of this post as politics rather than, say, celebrity drama or movie studio drama?
The complaints are especially political given the current administration.
I’ve already seen Harry Potter Balenciaga and frankly AI art is an improvement to the franchise
I hope nobody will watch this and they’ll loose a bunch of money. Beating the dead horse is an awful trend in television.
she essentially the british version of musk, on all the anti-trans thing.
She’s a transphobe, but I dont think she’s a nazi, right? Nor does she own a bunch of companies where she abuses her employees?
i mean shit did just straight-up do holocaust denial a bit ago
https://www.salon.com/2024/03/15/jk-rowling-trans-nazis-holocaust-denial/
That’s a bit of a stretch. But the goblins resembling Jewish stereotypes always bothered me
Nick frost is a fine casting but Snape? He’s gonna be Kanye East.
Alan Rickman was the absolute perfect casting for Snape. Nobody else could have brought him to life so well and so true to the books.
Of the entire film cast I think everyone could have been replaced except for Snape, therefore it does make sense to be bold and try something different in his casting for the new show.
Maybe but putting a black man in the wizard KKK rubs me wrong. It’d make more sense to make Harry himself black, heck Harry himself has a Black godfather. If we’re doing away with the whole wizard KKK vibe too, making Sirius and Bellatrix black would be funny.
Edit: But like half black with a white dad imo. Because James was old money English.
Clayton Bigsby walked so Severus Snape could run.
Alan Rickman was way to old though. He was supposed to be young. He isn’t “young” but I think Paul Dano could have played a decent fit. (Parents should have been what 19? And snape around 30 when the movies/books started ?)
Perhaps it wasn’t true the books then, but movie Snape was a believable age to have been at school at the same time as Harry’s parents. It’s just for whatever reason the author made the parents ridiculously young
The parents died at 21 apparently. So they graduated school at 17/18, entered the work force, entered a war and had a kid by 21. That’s not ridiculously young. Most of the reasons many people don’t have kids at 21 these days are tied to things they can obtain easily. Food scarcity, housing, and job hunting don’t seem like much of an issue. The mother can transfigure a flower into a “fish” and the father was also gifted in magic. They could build a house over the weekend with their family money.
Snape being the same age should have put him at 32 when the first book started. Rickman was about 20 years older than that.
Lay with dogs, get fleas.
Fuck Nick Frost and anyone involved with that piece of shit JK Rowling.
They drove a dump truck full of money to his house. What was he supposed to do?
He could donate his salary to pro-trans groups and causes. That would be a huge middle finger to JK.
JK Rowling funded this new anti-trans UK supreme court ruling. being a Harry Potter fan in 2025 is INDEFENSIBLE and inherently makes you a transphobe
being a jk rowling fan*
We’re all still allowed to like Harry Potter, just like we’re still allowed to dance to Michael Jackson songs
A vast majority of people on lemmy can’t separate the art from the artists (or the people who enjoy the art while acknowledging the shittiness of the artists)
Indeed.
For many of us Harry Potter was a significant part of our childhoods. It’s a great story with a satisfying ending. There was incredible excitement for each book, and the films weren’t bad either.
The world is already miserable enough I’m not willing to expunge something that has brought me joy.
We absolutely should denounce JK Rowling and her abhorrent statements. I have no idea why people continue to give her a platform. She’s one of the names on my filter list because I refuse to let her vile thoughts be given any of my attention.
It’s a great story
Is your favourite part the defence of slavery, the racist names, the Jewish caricatures, the belittling of women, or the arc about how rape babies are evil?
Completely agree, but be prepared to be dog piled for stating it in some places lol
So it’s okay to still like and want to buy a Tesla?
financially supporting someone who is actively dismantling our government at the whim of an increasingly authoritarian traitor is quite a bit different then enjoying a michael jackson song when it comes on the radio, or re-reading/watching harry potter.
But it isn’t when it comes to Harry Potter. The reason I made the comparison is that JK Rowling is also a billionaire using her wealth to influence legislation against trans people. They are more similar than they are different. Buying Harry Potter stuff puts money directly into her pockets to further her TERF goals.
Michael Jackson is a bit more gray.
I mean, don’t buy new HP stuff, you can find it used literally everywhere (or just sail the high seas). I just said it’s OK to enjoy it, not give that cunt more money.
Shit, man, I still refuse to eat chik filet.
Okay, but maybe specify that next time. The masses won’t buy used stuff unless prompted, and a blanket statement of ‘it’s okay to like Harry Potter’ without any nuance attached is just gonna give people permission to feel comfortable buying merch, games, Lego, other branded shit which goes directly to her pocket book.
If you like and want to buy a Tesla for reasons other than supporting Musk or his companies, I’d hear the argument. But there are better choices in vehicles for every reason I can think of, and expensive luxury electric vehicles can be had without it being a Tesla.
Not a cybertruck
100%. I still enjoy reading Asimov and Heinlein despite them being bigots. I just don’t support the behavior and call it out for being bad when I see it.
Still, those disappointed in the star’s decision to be involved in Rowling’s work have begun flooding the comment sections on his other posts, with one reading: “You always were an artist I highly admired. Please think again if you want to get involved with that woman, you might lose a lot of fans with that decision.”
He’s an actor, it’s a paying acting job. Are these supposed “fans” he might lose going to replace that pay check? No? Then shut the fuck up.
Yes, an actor with his castings has absolutely no options 🙄 this is the only one he got a call-back for, obviously
Dude is overweight and 52. What’s he holding out for? Anything close to this pay, in an industry that doesn’t really seem to care about JKR’s repugnant opinions?
That’s his business. If a stranger bitched at me because I took a job and they had some fucking problem with it, I’d tell them to cram it up their ass, and mind their own fucking business.
It’s not because he took a job, it’s because he’s throwing the weight of his celebrity behind a woman who encourages violence against some of the most marginalized people in our society.
People are questioning his ethics, not his career choices.
I’m not sure you should run your own social media if you become a famous celebrity.
I have no desire to be a famous celebrity, so I’m thankful that I’ll never be one. But, you’re right, if I were a celebrity I would have to demonstrate more tact. Luckily for Frost, he needn’t tell these obnoxious assholes to fuck off, because they’re not relevant enough to warrant such attention. Disabling comments on a few social media posts is sufficient.
Luckily for Frost, he needn’t tell these obnoxious assholes to fuck off, because they’re not relevant enough to warrant such attention.
You got it backwards. It’s the fans who decide if Nick Frost is relevant enough to warrant their attention. Like every actor, his entire career hinges upon that premise. Let’s see how shitting on his fans works out for him.
You’re so tough, I’m so envious of you 🥺
Grow up.
Take your own advice, boy. You sound like a selfish, spoiled little child.
If your job was morally repugnant, then they would be right to have a problem with it.
And who decides what is or is not “morally repugnant?” You? Are you the arbiter of objectively, universal moral truth? You must be, if you think anyone needs to seek your approval before taking a paying job.
Bruh, don’t just be pedantic, you can imagine direct things that would be objectively immoral to work as, like a slaver. And if you can’t than you’re just avoiding any kind of introspection at all.
it’s amazing how conservatives adopted moral relativism the second it benefited them personally
I’m not Conservative.
Obviously, you are the only one who can make that decision for you.
Not going to stop me from judging you for doing something that I consider morally repugnant, whether you do or not.
