All that is to say, when Black moseyed into a Bluesky hornet\u2019s nest about the upcoming HBO \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series<\/a>, I honestly think he underestimated how much he\u2019d get stung.<\/p>\n What\u2019s important is that Black is voicing a view silently held by many whenever circumstances require the public to choose between what is right and what is easy or, in this case, fun.<\/p>\n More than a week ago, HBO released the teaser for the reboot, introducing Dominic McLaughlin as the new face of The Boy Who Lived. Within 48 hours of its Mar. 25 release, the TV series preview trailer became the most-watched in HBO and HBO Max history<\/a>, racking up more than 277 million views.<\/p>\n Not everyone is excited about that.<\/p>\n (Lara Cornell\/HBO) John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore<\/p>\n \u201c[If] you watch or support this you\u2019re a bad person btw,\u201d said one Bluesky user<\/a>. \u201c[I\u2019m] not arguing with you about it either.\u201d She\u2019s entitled to that stance. If you\u2019re willing to consume a product that supports discrimination, that says something important about what and who you stand for. Others can react to that information in whatever way they see fit.<\/p>\n Black, though, viewed the situation differently. \u201cI wonder whether there\u2019s an argument to be made (I\u2019m making the argument) that art does not belong exclusively to its creators, that art is a collaboration between artist and audience and that it\u2019s ok to fall in love with this world, or any world,\u201d he posted in response<\/a>. \u201cThere are many abhorrent creators. Whether we can look past their abhorrence or not is up to the individual, of course, because art appreciation will always be up to the individual. I don\u2019t think loving \u201cGuernica\u201d (sp?) makes me a bad person even though Picasso was a colossal d**khead.\u201d<\/p>\n To say all Hell broke loose after that is an overstatement, but the barrage of counterpoints was piercing. So Black followed up with a blog post<\/a> explaining, among other things, that he finds Rowling indefensible.<\/p>\n As for the series, \u201cI won\u2019t be watching,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, I\u2019ll be honest, would I turn down a role in one [of] the films? That one\u2019s tougher for me to say . . . Maybe that makes me a bad person. Regardless, I just really miss nuance, you guys.\u201d<\/p>\n This ignited another eruption, inspiring Black\u2019s follow-up to his follow-up, \u201cAdvocacy for the Flailing<\/a>.\u201d In the main, it responds to another Bluesky user<\/a>, Violet, who challenged Black to think about how he can better use his influence as an advocate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen does morality compel advocacy?\u201d he asks in reply. \u201cIf I have, say, a half-dozen issues about which I\u2019m passionate, what are my obligations to those issues? Is it enough for somebody like me to run my mouth from the sidelines without ever getting fully into the game? I don\u2019t know the answer, and I don\u2019t pretend to know the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n All of these posts should be read in their entirety, by the way. They cover a lot more territory than these snippets describe and are generally models of good-faith exchanges. What brought this discourse into my area of the social media shade room, though, was the part where Black cites a statement Malcolm X made in a 1961 debate with James Baldwin<\/a> that explains his disagreement with the sit-in movement.<\/p>\n Ethical debates like this are miniature versions of those about performative gestures passing as activism.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they are willing to wait for another hundred years for the white man to change his mind to accept them as a human being, then they\u2019re wrong,\u201d Malcolm X said, \u201cBut if they\u2019re willing to lay down their life tonight, or in the morning, in order that we can have what is ours by right tonight, or in the morning, then it\u2019s a good move.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMust all advocates be willing to lay down their lives tonight, or in the morning?\u201d muses Black in light of that citation. \u201cOr is there space for those willing to wait a hundred years for their deliverance?\u201d<\/p>\n Oh no.<\/p>\n I did not come here to bury Michael Ian Black. We\u2019re beyond the Ides of March<\/a>; besides, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s a terrible person. (Amber Ruffin<\/a> and Roy Wood Jr.<\/a> put up with him, and those endorsements aren\u2019t easy to get!) He\u2019s simply another famous white man who has no actual skin in this game. Like many of his ilk, he\u2019s trying to be an ally, but still hasn\u2019t quite learned that meaning well doesn\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n What\u2019s important is that Black is voicing a view silently held by many whenever circumstances require the public to choose between what is right and what is easy or, in this case, fun. That gentle plea for patience represents the moderate\u2019s evergreen fecklessness. It permits those who don\u2019t know what to do to continue to do the least for their fellow citizens who have cried out helpful suggestions for many years \u2014 hundreds, even \u2014 only to be advised to please continue to hold. I\u2019m glad that Black is familiar with Baldwin, and I wish he knew better than to bring him and Malcolm X into this, however obliquely.<\/p>\n You may wonder why this teeny social media skirmish is worth examining. It\u2019s simple: Ethical debates like this are miniature versions of those about performative gestures passing as activism<\/a>. The \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies<\/a> are such an example. The most recent, reportedly the biggest yet, attracted an estimated 8 million marchers<\/a> in cities across the United States in a single-day show of resistance.<\/p>\n Scan Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and other social media platforms, and you may notice that when Black, brown and queer people questioned whether that weekend warrior energy would be channeled into tangible, sustained political action, white progressives attacked. The feeling of being under siege is new to many of them. Non-white and LGBTQ+ communities live with it in the supposed best of times, but for others, showing up to a march to feel less alone is enough.<\/p>\n We\u2019re facing problems heftier than choosing whether to watch a morally dubious show about a magical boy and his friends. Remember, though, that Rowling\u2019s stories used to provide a potent escape from the Muggle realm\u2019s deadly ignorance. Since the books became an international phenomenon, we\u2019ve lined up for the resulting movies, gobbled up licensed merchandise, and bought tickets to its hit play and theme parks. HBO\u2019s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, hopes this small-screen reboot will be its next powerhouse title, much in the way \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d dominated the last 15 years.<\/p>\n Black is known for championing free expression, especially in matters tied to cultural politics. \u201cTo participate in the gender dialogue as a man, even as some well-meaning mediator, means to inevitably . . . say the wrong thing and incur the wrath of online commenters,\u201d he observed in a 2019 Esquire profile<\/a>. Then the writer provides an example in Black\u2019s defense of Louis C.K.\u2019s right to move on with his life after he returned to performing stand-up comedy in 2018<\/a>. I found that disappointing.<\/p>\n So is the list of famous actors in the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d cast, including John Lithgow<\/a>, the new Albus Dumbledore. Lithgow explained to The New York Times<\/a> that he is in the empathy business, and that means understanding every variety of human experience. For instance, he\u2019s playing monstrous children\u2019s book author Roald Dahl<\/a> in a Broadway show that takes a hard stare at Dahl\u2019s antisemitism<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lithgow also portrays a trans teenager\u2019s grandfather in \u201cJimpa.\u201d His co-star in that movie, Aud Mason-Hyde, is trans and nonbinary. They describe working with Lithgow in glowing terms to Out Magazine<\/a> while admitting they found his decision to participate in the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series disconcerting and vaguely hurtful.<\/p>\n (Max Mumby\/Indigo\/Getty Images) J.K. Rowling<\/p>\n Black demonstrates a better kind of empathy in this moment. For one thing, he admitted his Picasso example was poorly considered: While the very dead father of the Cubist movement can\u2019t hurt anybody anymore, Rowling is digging into her estimated $1.2 billion personal fortune<\/a> to fund groups working toward trans erasure. In 2024, she donated \u00a370,000<\/a>, or around $93,000, to For Women Scotland. That organization spearheaded a legal challenge that eventually led to the U.K. Supreme Court\u2019s 2025<\/a> conclusion that trans women do not fall within the legal definition of women under that country\u2019s Equality Act of 2010.<\/p>\n Buoyed by that success, Rowling launched The J.K. Rowling Women\u2019s Fund<\/a>, described on its official site as \u201ca\u00a0legal fighting fund for women protecting their sex-based rights.\u201d Every Wizarding World product that\u2019s sold contributes to its coffers.<\/p>\n In a few months, Black may have to go through all of this again on \u201cHave I Got News for You,\u201d a topical comedy take on the headlines. Since it airs on CNN, that makes it part of the Warner Bros. Discovery empire. Assuming its fifth season is confirmed and the show returns in the fall, the Potterverse quandary is bound to be a talking point.<\/p>\n Want more from culture than just the latest trend? The Swell highlights art made to last. When that happens, that show and other forums like it might foster honest, thoughtful discussions about why this work cannot be separated from its creator, regardless of how we used to feel about it. Rowling would happily overwrite our collective affection for the films<\/a> because their star trio, Daniel Radcliffe<\/a>, Emma Watson<\/a> and Rupert Grint, condemns her bigotry. And it\u2019s natural to be upset at an author for poisoning the once-beautiful misfit haven she created. Social media runs on the righteous anger such betrayals can activate and, along with its more toxic cousins, that anger immolates most attempts at nuance.<\/p>\n Where Black differs from other celebrities who stride through the culture war\u2019s snares is that he doesn\u2019t simply claim to not have any answers, and leave it at that. He shared a blog post written by Violet, who makes many helpful points, on his Substack. Her thoughtful rebuttal, titled \u201cMichael Ian Black Is a Bad Thinker<\/a>,\u201d roughs up the comic but doesn\u2019t paint him as irredeemable. Like countless flailing souls, she explains, he comfortably resides in an epistemic gap. That requires others to point out the distance between insufficient gestures and the common sense acts required to push back against systemic assaults on human dignity. Teaching that lesson over and over again, even when the preferred action is inaction \u2014 like watching anything other than \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d for instance \u2014 \u00a0is exhausting.<\/p>\n At least Black is willing to show his work and own his slip-ups as he stumbles toward understanding the uselessness of half measures. \u201cI don\u2019t know the full extent of my role in advocacy or life or anything,\u201d the comic admits, adding that he plans to keep thinking out loud \u201cwith more curiosity than contempt.\u201d Good. If he can move others to do the same, that\u2019s a small step closer to breaking the dark spell that\u2019s been cast over this world.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n thoughts about the Wizarding World\u2019s woes<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/harry-potter-john-lithgow.jpg\")
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