The Harry Potter fandom and the fall of J.K. Rowling: A dying community? A look at the impact of J.K. Rowling’s actions on the Harry Potter fan community on YouTube

The Harry Potter franchise is one of the most popular media franchises in the world, and has a dedicated fan following. Harry Potter fans have formed communities on many social media platforms, and an especially interesting one is the Harry Potter fan community on YouTube. However, in the last five years, controversial actions of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling have affected the state of the fandom. In 2016, a black actress was cast to play Hermione Granger in the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a choice J.K. Rowling endorsed on Twitter, and which received very mixed reactions. In 2016 the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was also released, a prequel to the Harry Potter story and the first movie in a new series in the Harry Potter universe of which J.K. Rowling was the scriptwriter. Her writing for this movie was generally well received, but the sequel that was released in 2018, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, was not. Comments J.K. Rowling made about the sexual relationship of characters Grindelwald and Dumbledore angered many fans, who thought it was unnecessary and ridiculous to share this information, and a form of queerbaiting. Lastly, in 2020, J.K. Rowling posted a series of tweets that were considered to be transphobic by many of her fans. The aim of this study is to uncover the consequences of her actions on the Harry Potter fan community on YouTube, and how the nature of YouTube as a social media platform is related to this. Fan communities on YouTube is a subject that has not been researched enough yet, so this study fills part of that gap. Additionally, this study demonstrates the effects that fan communities have on the personal lives of individuals. The results of this study show that the actions of J.K. Rowling have negatively affected the state of the Harry Potter fan communities on YouTube within a process that has taken place over several years. The consequences have been so severe, that there have been dedicated Harry Potter YouTubers who have chosen to leave the fandom. Also, the nature of Harry Potter YouTube fan communities has slightly changed as well, as fans have reacted in different ways to the controversies and the community has therefore become more divided. The study shows that there are three possible reactions: loyalty, acceptance and rejection. Additionally, the effects of the J.K. Rowling controversies are noticeable in the social awareness of the YouTube community, and in the self-reflection of the YouTubers.