The main villain of Hogwarts Legacy, named Ranrok, seems to be the leader of a Goblin rebellion. While fans haven’t really gotten to see a Goblin rebellion on screen before, they’re actually a pretty sizable part of the lore. Though, it should be noted that there is some controversy surrounding the use of Goblins as villains in this title.

This villain reveal has a lot of gamers uneasy, as Harry Potter’s goblins have been a controversial subject for a while now as anti-Semitic symbols. While the books had them described with hooked noses and being secretive bankers, the films pushed the controversy further by making the goblins nearly identical to Jewish characters in Nazi propaganda. This controversy is not old, though it got most people’s attention when Jon Stewart mentioned it. For Hogwarts Legacy to choose these characters to take the role of villain is a strange and tone-deaf move for a game already trying to overcome much of J.K. Rowling’s controversy.

J.K. Rowling did not invent goblins, but she made them something entirely different from how goblins work in folklore. In folklore, goblins are chaotic and range from tricksters to evil. They did not really become their own fantasy race until J.R.R. Tolkien wrote his books. Rowling made the goblins her own by making them highly intelligent as well as creators and overseers of wizard economy with no alignment to chaos.