Harry Potter director Christopher Columbus is sharing his thoughts on the franchise’s controversial author, J.K. Rowling.

The filmmaker, who directed the first two Harry Potter films, told Variety that he doesn’t agree with Rowling’s views and believes that the entire situation is “very sad” in general.

“I like to sometimes separate the artist from the art, I think that’s important to do,” Columbus told the outlet. “It’s unfortunate, what’s happened. I certainly don’t agree with what she’s talking about. But it’s just sad, it’s very sad.”

Rowling, a self-described TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), has sparked criticism from her fanbase and the cast of the original Harry Potter films — including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint — alike for repeatedly espousing anti-trans rhetoric over the years. In April, the 60-year-old author publicly celebrated a U.K. Supreme Court ruling that excluded transgender women from the legal definition of a woman under Britain’s Equality Act.

Her repeated remarks against the trans community have prompted backlash over the forthcoming Harry Potter audiobooks and HBO’s television adaptation. In May, HBO boss Casey Bloys explained on The Town podcast that the series “is not secretly being infused” with Rowling’s views.

“And she’s entitled to those views,” Bloys added at the time. “And I think people are pretty clear that she’s entitled to them.”

While production is already underway on the television series, Columbus isn’t planning a return to Hogwarts anytime soon. When asked by Variety about his potential involvement in the series, the director responded, “No, I’ve done it, you saw my version. There’s nothing left for me to do in the world of Potter.”

That’s not to say that he’s against the adaptation. The 66-year-old revealed that he’s actually quite envious of the time and space that television allows over a film adaptation, noting that there were several storylines from the books that he just wasn’t able to include in the movies.

“The great thing about it is that with the first and second and third book, we wanted to do it all,” he said. “We wanted to bring all of that onto the screen, and we didn’t have the opportunity.”

That includes characters like Peeves — who Columbus said “never made it into the film” because “we just didn’t have time to develop the character” — to storylines like the one where Harry and Hermione fret over being potentially poisoned after drinking potions.

“We could never get that incredible scene into the film, and I’m sure it’ll be in the HBO series,” he said. “So for me, it’s an opportunity to bring all those scenes to life.”

While he might not be revisiting Hogwarts, Columbus noted that he’s already experienced a real sense of “deja vu” after seeing recent photos of Nick Frost as Hagrid and Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter filming together in London.

“Because it was exactly where we were 20 years ago!” he explained. “We had to shoot it on a Sunday with Dan (Radcliffe) and Martin Bayfield, who stood in for Robbie Coltrane.”