{"id":416176,"date":"2026-02-09T12:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416176\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T12:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:38:14","slug":"john-lithgows-non-binary-jimpa-co-star-on-his-harry-potter-casting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/416176\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lithgow’s Non-Binary ‘Jimpa’ Co-Star On His ‘Harry Potter’ Casting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs J.K. Rowling<\/a>\u2018s anti-trans views continue to plague the Harry Potter<\/a> franchise, the new Dumbledore is facing some fallout.<\/p>\n

\n\tNon-binary<\/a> actor Aud Mason-Hyde<\/a>, who came to see John Lithgow<\/a> as \u201cin some capacity a mentor\u201d while starring as his character\u2019s grandchild in Jimpa<\/a> (2025), admitted his casting in the HBO series \u201cfeels vaguely hurtful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe is such an incredibly talented actor, but also such a beautiful human to make work with, and that was my experience with John,\u201d they told OUT<\/a>. \u201cI never felt invalidated or questioned or doubted in my identity or in my transness by him. I consistently felt that he was a very loving and a very guiding co-star.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMason-Hyde added, \u201cAnd so there\u2019s an element of this that feels vaguely hurtful. But also I think that he\u2019s making this decision after we had made the film and after we had premiered the film, can\u2019t take away from what we had and the time that we spent together and the beautiful work that he does in this movie and actually how incredibly authentically he played the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast April, Lithgow was cast as Albus Dumbledore<\/a> in Harry Potter, which comes from writer\/showrunner Francesca Gardiner, an executive producer alongside Mark Mylod, who will direct multiple episodes for HBO in association with Bront\u00eb Film and TV and Warner Bros Television.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAud Mason-Hyde in \u2018Jimpa\u2019 (2025) (Kino Lorber\/Courtesy Everett Collection)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was definitely a difficult moment in time,\u201d said Mason-Hyde. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth speaking to John\u2019s reasoning by any means, but I do also think that it\u2019s a strange decision, for sure. And also I found it disconcerting, maybe, is the right word.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series adaptation comes as Rowling faces continued fallout over her anti-transgender views from fans and peers alike, including stars of the franchise<\/a> and director Christopher Columbus<\/a>. Lithgow has said her views didn\u2019t dissuade him<\/a> from taking the role.<\/p>\n

\n\tRowling previously celebrated UK<\/a>\u2018<\/a>s Supreme Court ruling<\/a> that prohibits trans women from being legally recognized as women. More than 400 people signed a letter<\/a> urging the country\u2019s film and television industry to take action on trans rights, including Paapa Essiedu, who has been cast in the Harry Potter series<\/a> as Professor Snape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As J.K. Rowling\u2018s anti-trans views continue to plague the Harry Potter franchise, the new Dumbledore is facing some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[153932,96,59,1635,2319,153933,39033,40400,9138,153934,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-416176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-aud-mason-hyde","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-harry-potter","12":"tag-j-k-rowling","13":"tag-jimpa","14":"tag-jk-rowling","15":"tag-john-lithgow","16":"tag-lgbtq","17":"tag-non-binary","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}