Fantastic Beasts – Dumbledore’s Secrets: Dumbledore’s homosexuality censored in China

China, as we know, never contradicts itself. And that is why the Party’s order to censor Dumbledore’s dialogue in Fantastic Beasts – Dumbledore’s Secrets in which he admits the romantic past with the evil Grindelwald does not surprise us that much. In the third chapter of the saga, directed by David Yates and written by JK Rowling herself, there is, in fact, a frame in which Jude Law’s Dumbledore tells of having made an unbreakable pact that from then on would prevent him from harming the man in his life, namely Grindelwald, played in this round by Mads Mikkelsen.

It is a scene of just six seconds that the Chinese censors have decided to cut and that Warner Bros., the production company of Fantastic beastshe decided to accept to make sure that the film could still land in the East. “We accepted these changes to accommodate local requirements, while keeping the spirit of the film intact. We want audiences from all over the world to see and enjoy this film, and it is important for us that Chinese audiences also have this opportunity, despite these small changes, “explained the production company in a press release. even if there are many users who have expressed perplexity for that sentence – “In the summer Gellert and I fell in love” – cut so point and blank.

The first time JK Rowling talked abouthomosexuality of Albus Dumbledore it was 2009, but the films had always stayed away from the subject until, in fact, the third chapter of Fantastic beasts. “As a studio, we are committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we distribute, and this also extends to circumstances that require nuanced cuts to respond sensitively to various market factors,” Warner added. Variety, even if the problem of the censorship of Hollywood films in China is certainly nothing new. It had already happened, in fact, with Bohemian Rhapsodythe biopic about Freddie Mercury from which all the scenes relating to homosexual relationships and drug use have been deleted, and with Alien: Covenant by Ridley Scott, from which the kiss between Walter and David, both played by Michael Fassbender, was cut.

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