HBO Boss Casey Bloys Says ‘Harry Potter’ Set Has ‘Serious Security’ Amid Death Threats Against Cast, Weighs In on His Meeting With Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and More

People sending death threats to kids and actors need a hobby.

I found Tim Ferris' [essay on fame](https://tim.blog/2020/02/02/reasons-to-not-become-famous/) very illuminating as to the statistically-inevitable downsides of having a large enough audience. Relevant section follows: This brings me to the topic of audience size and the metaphor of the tribe, the village, and the city. Think back to your 5th-grade class. In my case, there were 20–30 kids. Was there anyone totally off the rails in your class? For most of you, there’s a decent chance kids seemed pretty sane. It’s a small sample size. Next, think back to your freshman year in high school. In my case, there were a few hundred kids. Was there anyone volatile or unbalanced? I can think of at least a handful who were prone to violence and made me uneasy. There were fights. Some kids brought knives to school. There was even a kid rumored to enjoy torturing animals. Keep in mind: this high school was in the same town as my elementary school. What changed? The sample size was larger. Flash forward to my life in July of 2007, less than three months after the publication of my first book.  In that short span of time, my monthly blog audience had exploded from a small group of friends (20–30?) to the current size of Providence, Rhode Island (180,–200,000 people). Well, let’s dig into that. What do we know of Providence? Here’s one snippet from Wikipedia, and bolding is mine: >***Compared to the national average, Providence has an average rate of violent crime and a higher rate of property crime per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2010, there were 15 murders, down from 24 in 2009.*** *In 2010, Providence fared better regarding violent crime than most of its peer cities. Springfield, Massachusetts, has approximately 20,000 fewer residents than Providence but reported 15 murders in 2009, the same number of homicides as Providence but a slightly higher rate per capita.* **The point is this: you don’t need to do anything** ***wrong*** **to get death threats, r*** threats, etc. You just need a big enough audience.** Think of yourself as the leader of a tribe or the mayor of a city. The averages will dictate that you get a certain number of crazies, con artists, extortionists, possible (or actual) murderers, and so on. In fairness, we should also include a certain number of geniuses, a certain number of good Samaritans, and so on. Sure, your subject matter and content matters, but it doesn’t matter as much as you’d like to think. To recap: the bigger the population, the more opportunities and problems you will have. A small, self-contained town in Idaho might not have a Pulitzer Prize w***** among its residents, but it probably doesn’t need a SWAT team either. Now, here we are in 2020.   My monthly audience is larger than the size of New York City (NYC). For fun, Google “New York City” and click on “News.” On some level, those are the dynamics—good and bad—you will need to deal with if your audience is that large. But let’s assume you only have 100 or 1,000 followers. You should still wonder: At any given time, how many of these people might go off of their meds? And how many of the remaining folks will simply wake up on the wrong side of the bed today, feeling the need to lash out at someone? The answer will never be zero.

>With all actors on any kind of big IP shows — and this is obviously one of those where you’ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions — it can get scary in places. So for any show like that, we anticipated it and tried to have training, you know, best practices in terms of social media and how to handle it. And obviously we’ve got a serious security team. So unfortunately, it was something that we thought might happen and we just try to be as careful as we can. So not specific to this show, but also the case with their 5+ other big IP shows.

Death threats?! What are we doing people?

Anonymity makes people feel so entitled to do the most unacceptable shit.

I'm not fond of a Harry Potter reboot cash grab but making death threats to people who are just doing a job is crazy.

There should probably be a conversation about how literally any media output, social or otherwise, invokes violent rhetoric aimed at anyone and everyone. But instead, we just get articles centered around celebrities that are mostly used as a front for whatever culture war takes people feel compelled to post.

Absolutely unhinged.

I hope arrests are being made for death threats to TV shows. I hope those kids are insulated from all of this.

Average Harry Potter adult reaction.

Some losers need to get a life. It’s just a dude with a wand. Some serious bums live among us

That bloody Rupert Grint is a menace!

What a rage bait headline. 90% of the interview is about the business dealing at HBO. There is one question about this. "Question: Paapa Essiedu, who is set to play Snape in the show, recently talked about some of the toxic and racist reactions to his casting, including death threats. Did you anticipate that reaction? Answer: With all actors on any kind of big IP shows — and this is obviously one of those where you’ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions — it can get scary in places. So for any show like that, we anticipated it and tried to have training, you know, best practices in terms of social media and how to handle it. And obviously we’ve got a serious security team. So unfortunately, it was something that we thought might happen and we just try to be as careful as we can." While the headline is technically accurate, that isn't what the article is about.

I’d like to actually see the threats. Not saying they don’t exist but this could def be a pr move to lean into the controversy

The set means nothing when their digital and physical lives off-set will be hounded on a level unseen simply because we are escalating to a world full of troll-bots set to "harrass-to-sewerslide" that are getting more sophisticated by the day. The money can't be worth it.

Wouldn’t surprise me if they are Reddit mods

I love Harry Potter but man some of these fans need to touch grass

We really have created the worst possible culture, haven't we?

I hope to hell the first thing they told the parents after they were cast was "get your kids off the internet. For gods sake, don't let them online for 8 years"

It's pretty fucked up that they're getting death threats.

death threats are inexcusable and should really be prosecuted under the full extent of the law.

crazy Fans or Haters?

I get the concerns about it not living up to the movies but that is ridiculous. If you’ve don’t like it, don’t watch it and see the movie for a hundredth time. Anyone who sends death threats to people over a f****** TV show needs serious help. Some people really need to touch grass.

There are some sick sick people in the world. W.i.t.a.F is wrong with them??

Pathetic...

Clever girls. They drop these "death threat" stories preemptively a day before the story drops to try and shield the series from any criticism. It's what Ghostbusters 2016, Disney Star Wars, Rings of Power, and countless other franchises tried before from 2015 onwards.

If were an executive at HBO, I too would be talking about anything other than the millions I’m paying to the world’s most famous transphobe

This makes me horribly sad. I really hope those kids are well insulated and protected from social media

Hey I doubt it

I received death threats playing online games too. Why the hell people pretend these are serious?

Yeah but they are helping to make Jk Rowling rich?????

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This show existing sucks and is disgusting and if you support it you're okay with supporting transphobia and lining a bigot's pockets and every adult cast member involved should be ashamed of themselves. That being said, don't send death threats to anyone. Shun them all you like, say they're scumbags for taking the job all you like, say they're supporting transphobia by being in this all you like, boycott all you like, but death threats are not the answer. Also don't blame the kids or anything, they're.....well, kids.

I haven't seen any posts that are death threats against the actors but I have seen several posts from people upset about JKR being transphobic comparing support for the Harry Potter show to supporting Nazis. They said people watching the show are indirectly killing trans people. That rhetoric is very dangerous because unstable people might think destroying the show is noble. Before the angry aggressive HBO PR people start downvoting me: I'm not saying that I agree with them. I'm not saying those are the only death threats or that people on the right aren't also doing it. I'm posting about what I've seen recently. This sub is supposed to be a place for discussions. It's not an HBO PR fan page. I'm getting tired of HBO PR people telling people they're going to throw acid in their face or kill their pets because someone is critical of an HBO show. This is a post that I saw on X today from Siddhant Adlakha. >You can debate “separating the art from the artist,” in an epistemological sense, til the cows come home, but please know that by supporting anything Rowling touches, you’re funding dangerous political campaigns that align with views and methods of Nazism: And another post today. >JK Rowling actively uses the money she makes off of this to support anti-trans legislation, so supporting this show is supporting her.

That’s bad. But the teaser still looked awful

I think as a culture we should attempt to move past Harry Potter. This is proof

I have a feeling this is made up, but in this day and age I have doubts also

Who the f*** is sending death threats to kids over a tv show? Those unhinged anti JK losers? F****** hell. The culture wars just get worse and worse.

People are seriously fucked in the head. Their logic makes them believe that because the creator of Harry Potter isn’t Pro-Trans, it’s okay to send hate mail AND death threats to actors that have nothing to do with her or her stance. They seriously need therapy.

Are the death threats coming from deranged lefties who think it's transphobic or deranged rightoids who think it's satanic