Hogwarts Legacy trans representation reportedly labelled "performative bulls***" by developers

Attempts to increase diversity in Hogwarts Legacy have reportedly been described as "performative bullshit" - added to the game in response to the backlash against it - by people who worked on the project.

In our Hogwarts Legacy review, we said that the game "takes steps to more closely reflect the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community," introducing a student from Africa, a blind student, and a transgender witch who lives outside Hogwarts in the village of Hogsmeade.

However, according to Stephanie Sterling, that transgender character was described by an acquaintance who worked on the game as a "token," added "to pivot the conversation away" from J.K. Rowling. That was corroborated by Did You Know Gaming's Liam Robertson, who says that "there was apparently some trans representation added after some of the initial controversy." The presence of that character - described as a pillar of the community in our review - was apparently described by one of Robertson's sources as "performative bullshit." Sterling's source says that the character is "barely" in the game.

The Hogwarts Legacy controversy in the run-up to launch has been significant, but these reports echo the words of the game's director, Alan Tew, and his desire to allow players to feel "welcomed back" to the wizarding world, in spite of the difficulties that the fandom has faced in recent years.

While J.K. Rowling is not involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy, GamesRadar+ does acknowledge the author's role in the creation of the Wizarding World, as well as her publicly stated, harmful views regarding the rights of transgender people. If you'd like to offer your support to the communities affected by Rowling's rhetoric, consider donating to the National Center for Transgender Equality in the US, or Mermaids in the UK.

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I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.