Fans are rightfully outraged following news that Dumbledore isn’t “explicitly” gay in “Fantastic Beasts”
Have you heard? When Fantastic Beasts 2 picks up, Albus Dumbledore isn’t going to be gay. Or maybe he’ll still be gay, but the film will not address it and instead focus on how the future Headmaster of Hogwarts falls in love with a man, but falls in love with him for his “ideas” rather than his personality and all that other good stuff.
If you’re outraged, join the club. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director of the upcoming Harry Potter spin-off, David Yates, addresses Dumbledore’s sexuality by saying that the film is not going to bring it up. It’ll like, be there, but we won’t see it — kinda like a Thestral!
This has sparked immediate and rightfully deserved backlash for the franchise, which seems to be taking many missteps right now (*cough*Johnny Depp*cough*). The big problem here is that in prior interviews, J.K. Rowling has stated that Dumbledore *is* gay, and *was* in love with Grindelwald but now…that won’t be a main part of the movie *ABOUT* Grindelwald and starring young, hot Dumbledore. Essentially, the film is straight-washing the character, and TBH, it makes no sense. Fans are calling bullshit.
And if you know anything about wronged Harry Potter fans, you know that they will NOT calm down when things don’t go as planned. Fans have taken to Twitter to demand that the franchise do better — along with making jokes, of course. false
jkr: dumbledore is gay lol
fans: okay but u didn't put it in the source material
jkr: i know lol
*ten years later*
fans: okay you've got a chance to put it in canon now
jkr: hehe lol i know
fans: so are you gonna
jkr: no lol— lucy™ 💙💙 (@_avasharpe) January 31, 2018
Dumbledore will be exactly as ~canonically gay~ in Fantastic Beasts 2 (2018) as he was in Harry Potter 1 (2001), which is to say: not at all.
— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) January 31, 2018
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IT'S LITERALLY THE MOVIE ABOUT DUMBLEDORE AND HIS BOYFRIEND WHO TURNS EVIL
— Kristen Lyssara ♿ (@krislyssara) January 31, 2018
2007: "Dumbledore is gay!" – J.K. Rowling
2018: "Dumbledore is gay!" – j/k, lolling— Eric D. Snider (@EricDSnider) January 31, 2018
B) these actors are OLD. Jude Law is 45 and Johnny Depp is 54. What kind of message is it sending to kids if this hugely influential franchise has middle-aged Dumbledore still being tentative about his sexuality — or is still skirting around/hinting about an adult man's sex life?
— Aja Romano (@ajaromano) January 31, 2018
Dumbledore will not be gay in the Fantastic Beasts sequel, but he will be described with the coded adjectives used for closeted celebrities in 1980s magazine profiles
— Sam Adams (@SamuelAAdams) January 31, 2018
Not to be whiny but surely, from a storytelling point of view isn't Dumbledore being in love with Grindelwald the main reason to include his character in 'I can't believe its not Potter volume 2'? Dumbledore being gay was immaterial in the Potter stories, not in Fantastic Beasts.
— Diamanda Hagan (@Diamandahagan) January 31, 2018
Wait, so:
2008 JK Rowling: Dumbledore is gay! He loved another wizard!
2018 JK Rowling: Dumbledore is gay! But we won't address it at all in the upcoming movie I wrote even though the other wizard is in it because reasons!
🤔🤔🤔
— Tj "Book Daddy" Klune (@tjklune) January 31, 2018
I mean, how fucking hard would it be to have Dumbledore say to another dude: Accio your penis. THAT IS ALL IS NEEDED. THAT IS IT. Fuck, this pisses me off.
— Tj "Book Daddy" Klune (@tjklune) January 31, 2018
JK Rowling made a huge deal out of announcing Dumbledore was gay after she was done actually writing Harry Potter. Now, given the chance to write new Dumbledore stories with the Fantastic Beasts movies, his sexuality will … still not be explicit https://t.co/Tv8mjckAwl
— Christian Holub (@cmholub) January 31, 2018
https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/958799955979849729
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Also, we can’t ignore the fact that this is simply *not good*, considering this is 2018, and marginalized communities need all the representation. false false false
Apparently, Dumbledore’s sexuality may be addressed in a future Fantastic Beasts movie, which means we’re going to have to wait until *at least* November 20th…2020. Hopefully the franchise can get its act together by then.
