WAY BACK IN 2007, author J.K. Rowling told Harry Potter fans that their beloved headmaster Albus Dumbledore was *probably* gay.
In the years since, she’s been making a fairly big deal of referencing the Hogwarts principal’s sexuality on her Twitter account. One fan wrote “I wonder why you said that Dumbledore is gay, because I can’t see him that way”, to which Rowling replied:
Young LGBTQ fans were very excited to see Dumbledore’s relationship with Grindelwald in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts sequel ‘The Crimes of Grindelwald’.
Director David Yates told Entertainment Weekly “I think all the fans are aware of [Dumbledore's sexuality]. He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, ideology and each other.”
So naturally, this will be an important part of the movie, right?
Wrong. Yates went on to add that Dumbledore won’t “explicitly” be gay in the movie. Fans are fairly disappointed that the movie won’t highlight Dumbledore’s sexuality.
Paired with the fact that Grindelwald is played by Johnny Depp, things are not looking good for this franchise.
In 2018, it’s really not a huge risk at all to include LGBTQ romances in huge films. J.K. Rowling later tweeted that she’s not appreciating the abuse she’s receiving for an interview she didn’t even take part in.
