Certain Saturday Night Live viewers believed the show aimed a jab at JK Rowling through an LGBTQ-centered Harry Potter parody.

The NBC sketch comedy program returned from winter break on January 18 with Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard hosting and rapper A$AP Rocky providing the musical entertainment. The episode featured a Harry Potter segment spoofing the popular hockey romance series Heated Rivalry.

The pre-recorded bit depicted Harry Potter and Ron Weasley engaged in a passionate relationship at Hogwarts. Finn took on the role of Harry while SNL ensemble member Ben Marshall portrayed Ron.

Jason Momoa made an unexpected cameo as Rubeus Hagrid, declaring to Harry, “You’re a homo, Harry.”

Several audience members interpreted SNL as taking aim at JK, the author behind the beloved children’s books that launched a blockbuster film franchise and an upcoming television adaptation, through the homosexual angle of the segment, reports the Mirror US.

One viewer posted on X, formerly Twitter, sparking discussion, “they used a homophobic author’s story to represent a gay story…? ooookay got it.”

A second commenter replied, “That’s part of the joke they literally made a joke about it in the reviews part about how it would specifically p– her off cause she’s a pos.”

Someone else stated, “This is like the ultimate middle finger to jk Rowling tbh.”

Another responded, “Exactly. She’s going to hate this and that in itself is a win!” Some comments disagreed, arguing that the 60-year-old British author is transphobic rather than homophobic.

JK Rowling has not been as openly and publicly homophobic as she has been anti-trans. She frequently makes discriminatory remarks towards the trans community and seems to target them persistently.

However, Rowling has faced criticism from the queer community for her handling of Albus Dumbledore’s sexuality and the scarcity of queer characters in her series.

Rowling never explicitly wrote Dumbledore as gay in the series, but in 2007, she revealed that the headmaster was gay. During a Q&A session at Carnegie Hall following the release of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, she stated, “My truthful answer to you … I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.

“Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was,” she further explained.

Then, in the 2019 DVD feature and Blu-Ray for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Rowling confirmed that Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald had a sexual relationship.

“Their relationship was incredibly intense,” she commented in the feature. “I’m less interested in the sexual side – though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship – than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships.”

Heated Rivalry, a popular Canadian series that premiered in November last year, is based on the Game Changer book series by Rachel Reid. The plot revolves around Canadian hockey player Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, and Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov, portrayed by Connor Storrie.

Despite their rivalry on the ice, they maintain a secret, passionate relationship spanning decades.

The show was created, penned, and directed by Jacob Tierney for Crave. The six-episode series boasts a star-studded cast including François Arnaud, Robbie G.K. , Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, and Sophie Nélisse.

Fans will be thrilled to know that Heated Rivalry is slated to return for a second season.