Harry Potter video game will allow players to create trans witches and wizards, report claims
Hogwarts Legacy. (Warner Bros Games)
Hogwarts Legacy, the forthcoming Harry Potter video game, will allow players to create trans characters.
The news was reported in Bloomberg by Jason Schreier after he was contacted by several anonymous people associated with the game at WB Games developer Avalanche Studios.
The game will allow players to customise their character’s voice, body type and gender placement for the school dormitories. Characters can have a masculine or feminine voice no matter what body type they choose. They will then select either ‘witch’ or ‘wizard’ to determine the dorm they’re placed in.
Some members of the Hogwarts Legacy development team have pushed for this trans-inclusive character creation following the explosive comments on trans lives and healthcare from Harry Potter author JK Rowling. They also reportedly have pushed for a specific trans character.
The report claims that there was resistance from management at first, but this customisation has now been added in the game in an effort to be more inclusive.
Some members of the Hogwarts Legacy dev team had been pushing hard for this, uncomfortable with Rowling's position and rattled by the effects she has had on a game they've put a lot into
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) March 2, 2021
Schreier added on Twitter: “I should of course add the caveat that this game is at least a year away and anything can change, but this trans-inclusive character creator is part of the current plan.”
The news comes off the back of more controversy around Hogwarts Legacy, when the far right anti-social justice YouTube channel of one of its lead designers was called out online.
Troy Leavitt, whose YouTube channel is linked on his Twitter page, made pro-Gamergate videos and repeatedly criticised Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian.
This fresh news hasn’t swayed gamers who are concerned about the project owing to the association with Rowling, even though an FAQ on the game’s website states she is “not directly involved in the creation of the game, however, her extraordinary body of writing is the foundation of all projects in the Wizarding World”.
Hogwarts Legacy is currently due out in 2022.
