It was early 2022, and the Harry Potter author had avoided executives for more than two years. She’d recently skipped a reunion special that streamed on the company’s Max service, a notable absence amid the now-grown stars of the films. When she soon after attended the premiere of an installment in the spinoff “Fantastic Beasts” series, she didn’t pose for photos with the cast.
The stars who had embodied her iconic characters wanted little to do with her. Critics and former fans had spent the past two years castigating the author for public comments on gender and sex that they saw as attacks on transgender rights. When Warner didn’t rush to her defense, she felt betrayed by a company that had collected billions of dollars from her creation.
Then, like a letter arriving via owl post, word came that David Zaslav, the new chief executive of the studio’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, wanted to try to repair the damage.
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