In Fortnite’s grand collection of pop culture IPs, there are some notable examples that are still missing. One of those is Harry Potter, one of the biggest fantasy series ever, but it may finally be time to port Hogwarts into Fortnite, according to new leaks ahead of Chapter 7.
The leak is from PoketOfficial, among a few others, so it’s not official yet, but it has already sparked a firestorm among the Fortnite community with opinions ranging from “this is awesome!” to “this should never happen.”
If you’ve paid any attention to the fracturing Harry Potter fandom over the years, you’ll know that author JK Rowling has become one of the leading anti-transgender voices online, running counter to former cast members of the movies, who are pro-transgender rights, from Daniel Radcliffe to Emma Watson. This has led to former fans disassociating themselves from the series or even calling for boycotts.
Any time Harry Potter comes up now, be it through a new video game or upcoming TV show reboot or now, a Fortnite collaboration, the issue is raised. It’s a “should you separate the art from the artist?” debate, albeit the artist is constantly, endlessly posting about the issues to this day.
LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 29: J.K. Rowling arrives at the “Fantastic Beasts: The Secret of Dumbledore” world premiere at The Royal Festival Hall on March 29, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
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The reach of these protests, however, is largely limited to online spaces. There was enormous video game industry drama as fans pushed back against the game Hogwarts Legacy, a Harry Potter RPG, for all of the above reasons. Hogwarts Legacy then became the top-selling game of the year and has moved at least 34 million copies for $1 billion in revenue. A sequel immediately went into development. Similarly, the upcoming HBO series, despite protests, will probably end up breaking viewership records when it does arrive, I would guess.
I don’t think Fortnite would shy away from doing a Harry Potter collaboration because of JK Rowling’s views, for better or worse. There will be a lot of anger, and counter-anger, but ultimately Epic wants…to sell millions of Harry Potter skins, and if it’s a large collab, that could mean maps and modes and dozens of characters to choose from. It would very clearly be a large feature.
Among the other leaks about Chapter 7, we have things like a Vegas/Nevada/Area 51 theme, SpongeBob, South Park, Ninjago, F1, Back to the Future and Tyler the Creator. Harry Potter is in that list, and I do believe that if it comes to fruition, it will be one of the largest collabs the game has had in some time, which will spawn one of the loudest debates, as it already is.. But we’ve seen this before, and it’s unlikely to make a dent in the general acceptance of the addition to Fortnite.
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