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If I, a longtime Harry Potter fan, must think about Professor Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald having an “intense sexual relationship,” then you have to, too. I’m not just bringing this up for no reason. Potter creator and author J.K. Rowling brought it up herself on the Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald Blu-ray DVD, according to the Radio Times.
“Their relationship was incredibly intense,” Rowling said. “It was passionate, and it was a love relationship. 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.”
Dumbledore and Grindelwald are played by Jude Law and Johnny Depp in the film. (Do with that information what you will.) If you want to…hear Rowling say it yourself, then…go ahead!
Anyway, people have been sharing their thoughts about this on Twitter:
Back in 2007, Rowling surprised readers by revealing that Dumbledore was gay. The beloved wizard never had a partner in the books or films, and neither did the series ever mention his sexuality. “I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy,” Rowling said at the time. Some fans were angry (one man who got a giant Dumbledore tattoo had a pretty annoying day at work after Rowling’s revelation), while others felt the statement aimed to mollify critics of the series’ lack of diversity after the fact.
Critics pointed out a similar issue with the casting of South Korean actress Claudia Kim as Nagini in Crimes of Grindelwald, saying that the decision to make the submissive, unlikeable character Asian played into racial stereotypes. Having characters be explicitly queer or of different ethnicities in the original books, some argued, would have been more powerful a cultural statement. Oh, and there was also this weird one about how wizards poop. Apparently, they just do it wherever they’re standing. I’m sorry! I know it’s Monday.