Hogwarts Legacy Reportedly Allows Trans Character Creation
Hogwarts Legacy will allow players to choose their character's voice, body type and gender placement for the school's dormitories as independent decisions, allowing for nonbinary character creation, per a Bloomberg report.
Players can choose any voice with any body type, and will then get to select either "witch" or "wizard" to determine in which dorm they're placed. That decision will also determine how other characters in the world address them.
NEWS: Hogwarts Legacy will have trans-inclusive character creation, with body, voice, and gender ("witch/wizard") all separated, sources say. This news follows JK Rowling's transphobic comments and the recent discovery that a producer supports Gamergate https://t.co/vBmMdCSWAT
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) March 2, 2021
Developers working on the game at Avalanche Studios pushed for this feature after J.K. Rowling, the author of the original Harry Potter novels and the woman at the heart of their cultural empire, made several comments dehumanizing and demeaning transgender people. The developers sought to counter the toxicity they saw in Rowling's comments, fighting both for the customization and for a trans character to appear in the game's story, per Bloomberg.
Management at the studio is said to have resisted both proposals at first, and the inclusion of a trans character has not been confirmed by Bloomberg's reporting. The customization, however, is in the game as it currently stands.
Hogwarts Legacy sparked controversy upon its reveal for its ties to Rowling, with many vowing a boycott of the game as she stood to profit from its success. A second controversy erupted last month when journalist Liam Robertson revealed that one of the game's senior producers, Troy Leavitt, had made dozens of YouTube videos arguing against feminism and social justice. Leavitt also expressed support for Gamergate, a reactionary movement in gaming that encourages harassing journalists and game developers for holding progressive views.
Leavitt said in one video Warner Bros, the publisher of the game and the Harry Potter rights holder, was aware of his videos and had not flagged them as a problem.
Leavitt's videos, combined with Rowling's comments, led ResetEra, one of the largest video game forums on the internet, to ban discussion of the game's promotional materials. It is the first ban of its kind in ResetEra's history.
Hogwarts Legacy is slated for release in 2022.