The witchcraft and wizarding world of Harry Potter has introduced the first transgender character that has been seen across the entire franchise in Hogwarts Legacy.
Due to many transphobic comments by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, the franchise has been the source of much controversy which means that the inclusion of a transgender character is certainly a statement by the Hogwarts Legacy team.
The nature of Rowling’s transphobia has caused immense division and frustration among the Harry Potter community, with many fans boycotting Hogwarts Legacy altogether. In light of all the controversy, the Hogwarts Legacy team has previously made it abundantly clear they function separately from Rowling and now seem to have cemented their distance from the author and her views even further with the inclusion of Harry Potter’s first transgender character.
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The character is named Sirona Ryan and she can be found working at the Three Broomsticks in the wizarding town of Hogsmeade. She actually owns the pub and interacts with the character to help them on a specific mission. While Ryan doesn’t explicitly say that she is transgender, she does provide some dialogue that subtly makes it quite clear.
While discussing a friend that she has that the player is seeking, Ryan explains that although the friend previously hadn’t seen her in years they still managed to recognize her instantly. She then goes on to add, “Which is more than I can say for some of my own classmates. Took them a second to realize I was actually a witch, not a wizard.”
Outside of this conversation, Ryan seems to not play a very important role in Hogwarts Legacy’s story. Because she appears to be simply an NPC that factor much into the overall game, the reaction from players has been rather mixed.
Some are praising the Hogwarts Legacy team for what they view as a subtle but powerful rebellion against Rowling’s comments. Others within the community feel as though the character is there simply as a token character that is being presented in a very cliche way since she is a background character that feels thrown into the mix to them. These fans feel as though Ryan is there to check a box rather than for proper representation.
There are also many other fans torn on how exactly to feel about the situation since they haven’t been able to experience Hogwarts Legacy for themselves yet and feel like they cannot make a decision on Ryan’s character until they actually meet her in the game. Along with the inclusion of Ryan, the Hogwarts Legacy team also made sure that players could create a transgender character to play since they can freely utilize all assets along with any voice type they wish.
Those who have already begun their Hogwarts Legacy journey have also stated that regardless of the character they create the pronouns that other NPCs in the game use for the main character are the gender-neutral terms they/them/their. All of this means that at the very least, the Hogwarts Legacy team is defining their stance as directly opposite of Rowling’s.
Ultimately, it is up to players to decide for themselves how they feel about the inclusion of a transgender character and Hogwarts Legacy itself. Those who are hoping to form an opinion by playing the game themselves can jump into the action on Feb. 10 or sooner with an edition that includes an early access period as long as they are setting off to Hogwarts on PC, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X|S.
