Many fans are expecting “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” to explore Dumbledore’s romantic feelings towards his childhood friend, the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. After all, it has been a long time coming ever since JK Rowling outed Harry Potter’s mentor years ago.
Unfortunately, it won’t.
In speaking with Entertainment Weekly, director David Yates revealed that the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald won’t be explicitly addressed in the sequel. “I think all the fans are aware of that. He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, and ideology and each other,” he said.
Instead the storyline will focus on Grindelwald’s criminal nature more than anything else. Is the filmmaker avoiding any referencing to homosexual romance onscreen just to avoid controversy? In doing so, many fans from the “Harry Potter” franchise have been outraged.
After experiencing a series of backlash from disappointed Potterheads, Rowling took to Twitter to address the controversial statement made by Yates. “Being sent abuse about an interview that didn’t involve me, about a screenplay I wrote but which none of the angry people have read, which is part of a five-movie series that’s only one (instalment) in, is obviously tons of fun…” the 52-year-old author tweeted.
Her words seems to hint that although “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” won’t delve into Dumbledore’s sexuality, there are still 3 more following movies in the 5-part saga. That’s understandable if the goal is to see Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s relationship progress over subsequent films.
.@claraoswiin But of course. pic.twitter.com/Galu47MT4X
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 16, 2014
Back in 2014, Rowling responded to a fan with this meme saying, “If Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s that no one should live in a closet.”
Sources: Coming Soon, Screen Rant, Polygon.
