Hogwarts Legacy is just around the corner, and after it’s been unleashed upon the world, there’ll be plenty of Potterheads from all over cataloging and uploading character and story information to different websites and online wikis. As a standalone story, the new tale, crafted by developer Avalanche Software, won’t exactly provide any significant changes or updates to the series’ ever-expansive lore. In fact, the overarching plot is quite self-contained, and without giving any spoilers away, Hogwarts Legacy wraps up in such a way that future entries in the franchise, whether that be movies, books, or other games, could ignore it completely, should they choose.

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That being said, there are plenty of new characters who could easily make an appearance down the line. Leading up to Hogwarts Legacy‘s release, some have been wondering whether the game would feature any LGBTQ+ characters. After all, there were no openly-identifying characters in the original novels and their subsequent film adaptations — a trend only recently bucked with 2022’s The Secrets of Dumbledore — and, of course, there’s the entire matter surrounding franchise creator J.K. Rowling’s and her transphobic views.

Are there any LGBTQ+ characters in ‘Hogwarts Legacy’

This might come as a surprise to some, but yes, there are. Developer Avalanche Software has made several strides with regard to inclusivity. Having played through the entirety of the game, we noticed witches and wizards of all shapes and sizes, including some ethnicities that are often underrepresented in games, such as the South Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

As for LGBTQ+ inclusion, during our playthrough, we came across Nora Treadwell, an archaeologist and Merlin historian who recruits the player character to help fight off a group of Ashwinders working for Victor Rookwood. If you speak to her after, she’ll reveal that her interest in Merlin came about after her wife, Priya, gave her a book about Merlin.

Then there’s Sirona Ryan, the proprietress of the Three Broomsticks. You’ll end up crossing paths with her multiple times throughout the story, and as part of an optional side quest, she tasks you with retrieving a box of old letters that had gone missing. She eventually explains that her teenage years weren’t smooth sailing, hinting that she had a hard time fitting in and being accepted. Sirona also explains how she was often misgendered in her youth, and combined with her naturally low voice, it’s likely that Avalance Software was trying to hint at her struggles with gender identity.

And of course, there’s the character creator. As we mentioned in our full review of Hogwarts Legacy, you have the option to choose from several different and varied body types when creating your personalized character. Furthermore, regardless of which body type you choose, you’ll be able to pick whether you would like to be referred to as a witch or a wizard. Similarly, you are free to name yourself whatever you want. When other characters refer to you, they’ll either use they/them pronouns or some variation on “new student.”