New ‘Harry Potter’ film will completely avoid mentioning its leading man is gay

Ten years ago, author J.K. Rowling raised an eyebrow or two when she outed Albus Dumbledore, the wise old wizard in her moderately successful Harry Potter franchise. Not only that, she revealed that Dumbledore was once in love with another wizard–Gellert Grindelwald–until the two had a major falling out and Gellert went to the dark side.

The next Fantastic Beasts film, which will be released later this year, introduces a young Dumbledore for the first time (Jude Law) as he pursues Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).

But not like that.

The film, called The Crimes of Grindelwald, begins after the two have had their epic falling out, with Dumbledore pursuing the fugitive Grindelwald in Paris.

And if you’re thinking it’ll be an amazing opportunity to delve into a deep psychology of love, lust, desire, morality and loss, you’ll want to lower those expectations now.

In fact, the movie will entirely avoid the fact that Dumbledore was madly in love with the man he is now trying to apprehend.

When asked whether Dumbledore’s sexuality will be mentioned at all in the film, director David Yates said:

“Not explicitly. But 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.”

Talk about a missed opportunity.

Yates added:

“[Dumbledore’s] a maverick and a rebel and he’s an inspiring teacher at Hogwarts. He’s witty and has a bit of edge. He’s not this elder statesman. He’s a really kinetic guy. And opposite Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, they make an incredible pairing.”

OK, he may very well be all of those things, but he’s also GAY. Is that really too much for the film’s target audience to process? And wouldn’t that dynamic only add to the poignancy of Dumbledore having to hunt a now-evil Grindelwald across what is arguably the world’s most romantic city?

This isn’t Freudian rocket science.

Rowling first outed Dumbledore in 2007, telling fans, “I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was.”

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