Lilly Wachowski, acclaimed co-director of films including The Matrix, Bound, andV For Vendetta, said in a new interview that supporting the Harry Potter franchise is akin to supporting genocide against transgender people.

In an interview with Variety published today, Wachowski was asked about her thoughts on the controversy surrounding HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series set to premiere in December. The project has been met with significant LGBTQ+ backlash, especially given author J.K. Rowling’s involvement as executive producer and the author’s long history of anti-trans organizing. 

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“She is funding trans genocide. J.K. Rowling funds trans genocide, full stop,” she told Variety. “So, if you support Harry Potter, you’re supporting trans genocide. The money that goes into you enjoying these products, a portion of that money goes to J.K. Rowling and that money goes into her funding anti-trans legislation all over the world.” 

Notably, Rowling’s descent into anti-trans ideology has escalated over the past six years, culminating in the once-beloved children’s author using her fortune to fund legal battles against trans rights. In 2025, Rowling established J.K. Rowling’s Women’s Fund, which “offers legal funding support to individuals and organisations fighting to retain women’s sex-based rights in the workplace, in public life, and in protected female spaces,” per the organization’s website. 

Rowling’s support of anti-trans causes has coincided with a palpable turn against trans rights in the U.K. Last April, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that trans men are not men and trans women following a lawsuit filed by For Women Scotland, an organization partially funded by the author.

“The money that goes into you enjoying these products, a portion of that money goes to J.K. Rowling and that money goes into her funding anti-trans legislation all over the world,” Wachowski told Variety. “In the same way that if you are against Elon Musk, you boycott or don’t buy Tesla; and if you’re against global warming/climate change, you try not to buy as much gas, you try to mitigate your use of these products. It’s simple math. So, your enjoyment of these shows, and continued support of these shows, is supporting my eradication.”

“These people are Nazis,” Wachowski continued. “They’re literal Nazis.”