Video Games

Sirona Ryan, Hogwarts Legacy’s trans character, felt “very important” to devs

First transgender character in Harry Potter

Marco Wutz

Sirona Ryan, Hogwarts Legacy’s trans character, felt “very important” to devs
Sirona Ryan, Hogwarts Legacy’s trans character, felt “very important” to devs /

Hogwarts Legacy is finally playable and has been acclaimed by critics, though the controversies surrounding it due to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s views regarding transgender people are making online debates around the title a difficult affair. Some streamers have suffered abuse for broadcasting it on their channels. Amid all this, players have discovered that Sirona Ryan, who runs the Three Broomsticks tavern in the game, is a transgender woman.

The addition of Sirona Ryan is notable for several reasons. She’s the first trans character to be included in any Harry Potter medium and also seems like a statement by the developers against the views of the universe’s author.

Speaking to IGN, a representative of the development team at Portkey Games commented that “it has been a high priority throughout the development of Hogwarts Legacy to create a game that is representative and diverse, aligning with our wonderful fan community.”

"The team felt that it was very important to create a game that is representative of the rich and diverse world of Harry Potter as well as the groups of people who play games, which includes the LGBTQIA+ community”, the spokesperson continued.

Avalanche Software, WB Games, and external experts for diversity and inclusion gave their input regarding the roster of characters players encounter in 1800s Hogwarts.

Without getting into spoiler territory here, Sirona Ryan plays a role during an early storyline in the game, where some of her background can be explored by players. Her involvement in the events of the game is pretty shallow overall, though.

Asked why the character wasn’t used in the game’s marketing, which might have helped stem the tide of boycott calls against the title, the representative responded that the team wants the players to discover the story for themselves.

In any case, it seems pretty clear that the teams behind Hogwarts Legacy do not share the views the setting’s author has so consistently displayed.

You can check out our Hogwarts Legacy review to get an impression of the game.

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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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