Dumbledore’s gay relationship may remain private in China. Warner Bros. removed dialogues from the latest Harry Potter prequel movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, which refers to a gay connection before the film’s release in China. The correction was reportedly prepared at the recommendation of China.
A six-second cut was desired and Warner Bros. approved those changes to recognize regional provisions, but the heart of the film remains untouched, told by Warner Bros., they said we expect audiences around the world to see this film and are important to us that the Chinese audience has the opportunity to feel it too, even with these minor adjustments.
Two lines of dialogue were omitted that implied that Dumbledore was romantically active with a man, Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen): “Because I was in love with you and Gellert’s summer and I fell in love.”
This is not the first time China has opposed the subject. The general requirements allow for on-screen reflections on homosexuality and have recently eliminated all comments about it in Bohemian Rhapsody, as a criterion.
The Secrets of Dumbledore has already been released in China, where it ended at the box office over its opening weekend. The film’s record has been neater than its opposite would have been (just $9.7 million) since the country’s theaters have closed due to the existing COVID-19 explosion.
The creator and co-screenwriter of the film JK Rowling shocked enthusiasts by revealing that Dumbledore is gay in a 2007 fan incident after the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows edition.
In the previous Fantastic Beasts movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald, the connection was vaguely credited, but it wasn’t until the new movie that the expert got it across.
Dumbledore’s sexuality has been verified as a heated question within the wider Harry Potter fan base. While producer JK Rowling made sure the iconic genius was canonically gay in 2007, many believe the revelation was false. Fans have accused the author of queerbaiting by acknowledging the personality’s sexuality but never explicitly showing it in any of the books or movie changes. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the main entry in the franchise that Dumbledore vigorously admits as gay.
This was just the deadliest portrayal of a movie that was reviewed or banned abroad due to LGBTQ topics. In 2019, Freddie Mercury’s biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was reworked for China to remove considerations of Mercury’s sexuality and his AIDS diagnosis, according to BBC News. Last November, the Marvel blockbuster Eternals was also banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, clearly because it is a same-sex couple kissing on screen. The film was not broadcast in China.
Warner Bros. protected the Fantastic Beasts correction on Variety, saying it was done to protect the quality of every movie we publish, and that it extends to conditions that make it necessary to make small incisions to be sensitive to a variation of in-market components. Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore released in the US this week and develops more powerful analysis so far than the last installment in the franchise.