A mother has filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. after her three-year-old son was allegedly impaled in the eye by a Harry Potter replica wand.
TMZ reports Jessica Perry claims she purchased a wand featuring a light-up pen function, which she gifted to her children. Her son was playing with the wand—which he waved around pretending he was one of the wizards featured in the books and movies—when the pen part of the wand ejected and pierced her younger son in the eye. As a result of the injuries, his eyeball was ruptured and he had to undergo several surgeries.
Perry said that the product was defective and Warner Bros. should have made the potential risks clear. Apparently, she found an online review of the project detailing a similar incident. She added that her son, who was almost blinded by the wand, has been forced to use painful eyedrops and must wear an eyepatch. The eyedrops allegedly leave him screaming in pain while the eyepatch has made it so he can only sleep with the lights on. He will also have to be careful about potentially injuring his retina again, making it difficult for him to play sports.
Perry is seeking $8 million in damages for the injuries, emotional distress, and punitive damages. Warner Bros. owns the film and TV rights to the franchise. The company has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed a Harry Potter series will be heading to the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max at some point in the future. It will supposedly feature an entirely new cast and cover one book per season. It's been teased that the show will be more faithful to the books than the movies.
Author J.K. Rowling will be on board as an executive producer despite her attempts to tarnish the legacy of her one popular creation.
Daniel Radcliffe, who portrayed the titular character in the series, has repeatedly spoken out about Rowling's hateful turn toward repeated transphobic rhetoric. He published an open letter in 2020 at the peak of the backlash against her and later said he "felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did because, particularly since finishing Potter, I've met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification Potter on that."
