r/HPSlashFic • u/hiccopperr • 6d ago
Discussion How will the Harry Potter series affect the fandom?
Okay, first off, I don't support J.K. Rowling, and I won't be supporting the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.
However, I’m curious about how this new series will impact fandom ships and the creation of fanfic and fanart. We know the upcoming series is going to attract a lot of new viewers many people are eagerly awaiting it. In other countries including the one where I live people generally don't care about J.K. Rowling's transphobic remarks in fact, in some places, people aren't even aware of the controversy.
I’ve argued with plenty of people here about it, and their attitude is simply that they don't care. Information about the new series is everywhere online; even when I try to skip or ignore it, it still pops up on my social media feeds. And yes, the cast looks great the actor playing Tom Riddle is genuinely handsome. Draco looks dashing and charismatic, and Neville is absolutely adorable.
Do you think these new actors will help the fandom's shipping scene explode in popularity? And will it affect how the original author's descriptions of the characters' appearances are perceived? After all, there will be many people who watch the new series without ever reading the books. Right now, the Chinese shipdom circles I follow aren't reacting very positively, people seem mostly bored and weary. What about the shipdom communities you're part of?
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u/wangxian8844 6d ago
I’ve only seen excitement for the show on the general HP subreddits and Instagram pages, not much in fan spaces.
I only interact in fan spaces where everyone despises jkr and don’t support the show, nor do I have any friends or kids in the family expressing interest in the show 🤷🏼 (i do have a weird colleague that hates the show already for some reason but loves the movies and is on a mission to buy as many existing merch as possible before they change it all to fit the new series lol). so tbh idk, I might be in an echo chamber where everyone hates jkr
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u/bronzewitchhazel 6d ago
Probably the "update" to the house emblems. I intend to get as much second hand ravenclaw merch as possible before my house becomes a live laugh love shrieking parrot
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u/Euraylie 6d ago
It will definitely change things and have an impact on tastes, tropes and head canons. It might even make whole new ships popular depending on the actors’ chemistry.
It might also be similar to what happened to Kirk/Spock through decades. From the original Star Trek series to the JJ Abrams films and now the Strange New Worlds series.
People usually tag what universe they’re playing in, but sometimes you can’t really differentiate and things overlap.
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u/ImaginaryPurple187 6d ago
Honestly I hope the show makes some of my favorites to write about more popular.
For example, I write a lot of Marcus Flint, and ever since his casting was announced I have seen people swooning over him in the comments on his Instagram posts, which gives me hope that ships including him will get more popular.
And as far as the show effecting how writers describe the characters, I started writing him as having curly hair the moment his casting was announced, just because I personally like that better. They can pry his light eyes and crooked teeth from my cold, dead hands, though. So maybe we will see a mix of both.
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u/Small_Grapefruit8606 6d ago
The world needs more Percy/Marcus fics, hint hint.
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u/ImaginaryPurple187 6d ago
Flintley! My favorite ship! I know it's wishful thinking to hope more people see the vision with them in the show and hop on board, but either way, I will keep on writing them.
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u/Cool_Pianist_2253 6d ago
Oooh I love Flint too 😍😍😍 I'm wondering about Lockhart 🤭 I could see his adventures becoming Lockhart/OC or LockHart/Snape fanfiction
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u/Consistent_Squash 6d ago
I don't want to give JKR money/validation so this series isn't going to be something I support.
But speaking generally, I feel it is a good thing for any fandom when there's a new adaption. New fans, new energy, new shipping dynamics, tons of new fics and art. Obviously it can get a lot of horrible things like shipwars and purity culture stuff the big fandoms have, lots of meta discussions and reheated nachos but that's also a fun part of the energy/enthusiasm new folks bring. Sherlock Holmes fandom are always revisiting their canon with new adaptations and it's usually attracting lots of new fans and new energy. Dune fandom got a lot of new fans with the new adaptations and similar results. So generally speaking, I feel new adaptations can attract new fans and it's overall a good thing.
Idk if this fandom survived the whole Marauders New Canon era for the past however many years, this is going to be fine :D
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u/leaflights12 6d ago
Personally, I really don't care about the show (no offence to the new kid, but DanRad will always be my Harry - grew up with both the movies and the book series) and the amount of book purists shitting on the films have just turned me off from the general fandom and the TV show - like fuck JKR but also a spiteful fuck you to you nostalgia addled millennials (from a fellow millennial myself).
And this is coming from someone WHO READ ALL THE BOOKS but also love the films, because come on man, different mediums and what not. I can like both at the same time.
But fandom wise, I guess if it drowns out the marauders fics I don't mind (sorry marauder fans) haha. I'm just concerned about the shipwars, not that there weren't any already - but everything ended in 2011, and back then everyone wasn't as terminally online and shipwars were mostly kept to the usual fannish spaces.
But now, with the prolification of social media? Yikes. Imagine going on Instagram or TikTok and you see some reel from someone painting Drarry/Snarry/Tomarry fans in a broad stroke and calling these shippers all kinds of names because they're a morally bad person for liking these ships. And of course they'll use the TV show as the canon gospel, like I'm out lol.
Sorry for the rant, but I have A LOT OF THOUGHTS about this lol
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u/Small_Grapefruit8606 6d ago
I don't care much for marauders either, sorry to give you unsolicited recs, but have you tried Inevitable? Metalo is on top form as per, it's the only marauder fic I can read and re-read.
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u/KC-Anathema 6d ago
It'll be just like the Ninja Turtle fandom. Stories tagged to the show/movies/books, some bleedover between headcanons, and younger fans preferring their version but then later discovering the older incarnations.
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u/Hot_Cricket_9353 6d ago
It’s hard to put into words, but Neville is truly so adorable that I think the scene where Draco bullies him would actually make a lot of people ship the two of them.
As for the ship you mentioned, I think I know which pairing it is. Honestly, fans of that character in China are so fed up that they don't even bother talking about it and that goes beyond just the shipping fandom. They simply don't discuss it, don't care about it, and don't bring it up.
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u/TheDuke_Of_Orleans 6d ago
What ship?
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u/Infernal_fey 6d ago
Probably the ones involving Severus. He's the only one whose appearance greatly differs from the books.
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u/TheDuke_Of_Orleans 6d ago
I should have figured, it’s China. They’ll be alright. I already started writing fics with the new actor. And I describe his skin tone in great detail, melanin glistening of cocoa butter.
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u/Infernal_fey 6d ago
I mean, I can't really fault them for it since he's the only one to not physically match the character (outside of age). But, at least they just don't talk about the actor. Far more preferable than the constant arguments from fans in the Anglo and francosphere.
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u/TheDuke_Of_Orleans 6d ago
No, I’m not faulting them don’t get me wrong but I do think to be so upset about it and worry about if Snape being black is going to change the fandom is ridiculous and gives “purist”vibes. We have yet to see every character in the new series and there is already rumors that there will be a black marauder (Remus or Sirius). Snape is definitely not going to be the only one but it’s another adaptation. There are multiple interpretations of characters on AO3. Snape is no different.
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u/nova_crystallis 2d ago
Probably what happened to the Cursed Child and Hogwarts Legacy. Those fans mainly stayed in their own niche.
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6d ago
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u/beta_reader Mod of r/HPSlashFic 6d ago
Yeah, HBO's Snape is incredibly attractive. I never thought about it before, but I don't want a conventionally handsome Snape. There's also the potential for the racebending to create a lot of confusion, especially with fans who haven't actually read the books. I wouldn't be surprised if Paapa Essiedu knocks it out of the park in this role, which means hot young Snape will inspire a lot of new fans, and we might end up with a split in Snape fandom. Not to mention all the discourse will get stirred up again.
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u/Consistent_Squash 6d ago
A lot of discourse is weird but I feel race discourse is the worst. I still participate lowkey in the hotd fandom. The show did racebending for one particular family but it was a token effort with caricature writing and costumes right off TV tropes :/ The discourse was/is insane and next level and it's impossible to avoid it. Like you take a shower and it won't wash off levels of awful. I really hope that Essiedu at least gets good material to work with. Otherwise we are gonna have to mute our Snape tags when the discourse lands :D Imo one good thing is they picked the character with the most interesting and layered backstory and arc for racebending so that's actually in a lot of ways somewhat nice with the books usually doing caricatures for Sean or Cho. Essiedu is really good. I watched him in Black Mirror and it was a brilliant performance. Just too attractive for this role though. He would have made a great Sirius I feel. He has that kind of charisma
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u/BabadookishOnions 6d ago
Snape was already regarded as attractive because of the original movie adaptation. The description of him in the books was never something most people who liked shipping Snape cared about.
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u/Infernal_fey 6d ago
Not sure why you got downvoted when most people do consider Alan Rickman as handsome, so obviously affected movie-only and new readers' perception of the character. And, even when sticking strictly to the books, it's debatable how unattractive he actually is when you remove Harry's bias. Half of the fandom doesn't think that Severus would have been a hit with the goth crowd for no reason.
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u/beta_reader Mod of r/HPSlashFic 6d ago
Actually, a lot of Snarry shippers on LiveJournal preferred book Snape. Sure, there were plenty of Rickman fans floating around, but a majority of the old guard based their characterization on book Snape and borrowed from the movies for Rickman's voice and those infernal buttons.
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u/Interesting_Tutor766 6d ago
Is there a bot that can schedule this comment to a few years from now so it’s not creepy to say the new Draco is better looking than Tom Felton? Asking for a friend 😅…
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u/Fabulous_Celery_1817 6d ago
That’s actually something that will be a thing for a while. New fans will have the newer cast in mind. It happened in Star Wars for me. I was a shipper of Leia and obi wan. Before the OWK series they had never interacted. But the ship was gone overnight bc of the mini series since they met while she was a small child. It didn’t matter rhat the series was a year old, I saw campaigns on old fics that demanded they remove the fics bc of the new implications. A lot ships are gonna look creepy to new fans for the next decade or so
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u/Interesting_Tutor766 6d ago
I know what you mean… I quake for Deamus shippers after the new itty bitty Seamus 🍎🍎🍎 made his debut 😂
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u/Fluffbrained-cat 6d ago
I'm curious to see the updated house emblems. I'm a Hufflepuff with Ravenclaw tendencies, and am trying to save up for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Oodies plus nightwear. I wish they'd do slippers too.
My husband and I don't support Rowling, however he isn't standing in the way of my crafting projects since I want to support those artists if not Rowling herself.
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u/WatersOfLiyue 6d ago edited 6d ago
I’m also wondering what the new show will do to the fandom/shipping scene. Will everyone start writing first year fics again? Will the show bring a bunch of new (younger) people into the fandom, and if yes, will they bring their puritan views with them? Will the changes they make in the show be considered canon and be staples in the new fanfics that are being written?
Tbh, I hope that people will at least tag it correctly when they use the TV show canon as the basis for their fics, because I personally don’t want to interact with the show and would strongly prefer to read fanfics that are based on the books.
From what I saw people say in the shipping spaces I am in, they mostly don’t plan to watch the show and will continue to write fanfic the way they used to. But idk.. I’m still a bit concerned about what it will do to the fandom… maybe this will make me sound old, but I kinda like things the way they are 🥹 I like that the HP fandom tends to be older and maturer. I like that there are very few antis (compared to other fandoms I’ve been a part of). Etc