J.K. Rowling revealed more intel about Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s “passionate” and “sexual” relationship

While much has been said—and even more not said—about Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald’s complicated past in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, J.K. Rowling is shedding new light on the powerful wizards’ teenage relationship in a Blu-Ray extra for the film.

While Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is ostensibly the central figure in the Fantastic Beasts series, much of the franchise’s story actually hinges on Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s complicated past, which was only tepidly explored in the Harry Potter novels. Given Rowling’s admissions that Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grindelwald as a teen (which, mind you, never actually made it to print—the revelation came after the release of the final Potter novel), Harry Potter fans have been extremely interested in the duo. However, the film itself only made small allusions to a deeper relationship between the powerful wizards, leaving many fans rightfully disappointed.

However, in the new Blu-Ray extra, Rowling revealed the relationship was “passionate” and—she believes—sexual.

"Their relationship was incredibly intense. It was passionate, and it was a love relationship," Rowling said, per the U.K. magazine Attitude. “But as happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it, one never knows really what the other person is feeling. You can't know, you can believe you know."

She added: “So 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.”

While we’re glad Rowling is finally giving fans definitive answers regarding the nature of Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s past, we’re also hoping the studio actually allows her to include some of this information in the films, putting this quasi-canon nonsense to rest.