Filmmaker Lilly Wachowski, co-creator of “The Matrix” franchise, said fans who support the upcoming HBO “Harry Potter” series are complicit in what she called the persecution of transgender people, pointing to author J.K. Rowling’s financial support for legal efforts involving sex-based rights.
“She is funding trans genocide,” Ms. Wachowski told Variety in an interview published Thursday, referring to Ms. Rowling. “So, if you support ’Harry Potter,’ you’re supporting trans genocide.”
Ms. Wachowski argued that revenue from Ms. Rowling’s franchise flows back to her personally and helps underwrite that advocacy. She likened the calculation to boycotting Tesla over Elon Musk or curbing gasoline use over climate concerns: “It’s simple math.” Ms. Rowling’s J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund, launched in 2025, describes itself as providing legal funding to individuals and groups “fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights” — a framing Ms. Rowling’s camp has distinguished from broader political funding, though critics have said the cases it backs target transgender rights.
Ms. Wachowski, 58, made the remarks while promoting Anarchists United, a nonprofit foundation she co-founded with film programmer Sarah Marie Flores and producer Lawrence Mattis, along with its studio subsidiary, to fund and mentor filmmakers from what she described as marginalized communities. The venture’s first release, an eight-part comedic documentary series called “Cassie Workman Is Witchy AF,” is set to premiere Wednesday on YouTube.
The director did not spare Mr. Musk either, calling him “a Nazi” and referencing his gesture at a January 2025 post-inauguration rally that critics compared to a Nazi or fascist salute — a characterization Mr. Musk has denied, dismissing the backlash as a “dirty tricks campaign.” Ms. Wachowski said tech and media consolidation under executives she described as ideologically aligned with Mr. Musk, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has made it harder to sell “queer and trans stories” to studios.
She also revisited a 2020 exchange in which Mr. Musk posted “take the red pill” — a reference to “The Matrix” that has been widely adopted by segments of the political right — and Ivanka Trump replied “Taken!” Ms. Wachowski’s retort at the time, “F— both of you,” has circulated online for years. She told Variety the co-opting was deliberate rather than a misunderstanding of the film’s themes: “They’re not misunderstanding the film; they’re co-opting a message.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms. Wachowski said she and her sister, director Lana Wachowski, drew on the history of Black liberation movements in Chicago when conceiving “The Matrix,” saying the character of Morpheus carried “shades of Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party,” and that the pair related the film’s themes of systemic control to their own experiences as closeted trans women at the time.
Ms. Rowling has faced years of criticism from transgender-rights advocates over her public statements on sex and gender, which she has defended as rooted in women’s rights and safety concerns. She has not responded to Ms. Wachowski’s remarks.
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