The ‘Harry Potter’ References From ‘Red, White and Royal Blue’ Have Been Removed In The Reprints
The novel's author Casey McQuiston is non-binary and has spoken out against Rowling's transphobia in the past.
BookTok darling Red, White and Royal Blue will no longer contain references to Harry Potter in the latest reprints.
In a handful of viral TikToks, fans of Casey McQuiston’s novel, Red, White and Royal Blue have noticed something different about the book’s latest reprints. In the latest reprints, passages in which the characters referenced Harry Potter have been removed.
Red, White and Royal Blue is a queer romantic comedy novel centred on the son of the president of the United States and the prince of Britain who meet when they’re forced to pretend to be friends for the sake of international diplomacy. The book became a bestseller over the pandemic thanks to its viral success on Booktok and is subsequently being adapted into a movie.
But with the book being partially set in the UK, it initially had several references to Harry Potter. Alex, the son of the president, makes a point of bringing the Harry Potter books with him when he goes to Britain. In several scenes, he and Prince Henry playfully discuss Harry Potter, including an infamous scene where Henry goes on a “tirade” about why Remus Lupin was, “gay as the day is long”.
In case you missed it, JK Rowling has revealed herself to be a massive transphobe. In the past few years, Rowling has shown her vitriol for trans people in many ways, including tweeting transphobic rhetoric and penning entire essays justifying her hatred of trans people.
Undoubtedly, it’s for these reasons that Red, White and Royal Blue author Casey McQuiston, who is trans-non-binary and has spoken out against Rowling’s transphobia in the past, has removed the Harry Potter references from their novel. According to a thread by the editor and author, Morgan York, this is becoming a regular thing with reprints of books with Harry Potter references. Other authors have also removed references to Rowling’s work.
As for Red, White and Royal Blue, McQuiston replaced references to Harry Potter with references to the Percy Jackson novels, and a few miscellaneous other pop culture references.
As someone whose job involves interacting with reprints corrections for books, I’ll tell you: this is actually becoming very common (dropping HP references from pre-existing books). Which is a good thing https://t.co/NqF5aDFuKC
— Morgan York 🌻 (@morganyorkwrite) June 19, 2022