Hollywood has finally decided to take on risk and include LGBTQA characters in more high budget and mainstream films. Many of these new movies are marketed as a victories for the LGBTQA community and have a moral alignment with social liberals. However, as I have watched many new films that are celebrated for being “progressive,” I have noticed that the promise of progression is a facade. Queer characters are often only implied and gay relationships are barely noticeable.
Hollywood seems to want to appease the norm of the social political spectrum despite aligning themselves with the left. This means creating films for both progressive and nonprogressive audiences. In my opinion, these claims of progressiveness come off as disingenuous since many characters show no sign of their sexuality or sexual orientation, which causes the films to fall short.
An example of one of these films is the heavily anticipated Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, a big screen movie adaption from J.K. Rowling’s screenplay. As a self-labelled Harry Potter fanatic I had high expectations that fell short after seeing the movie. This had nothing do with the acting, directoring, or visual effects—all were fabulous. It had to do with the creative liberty taken with the expression of Dumbledore’s sexuality.
For those of you who don’t know, Dumbledore is gay, and this fact plays a significant role in the storyline. Dumbledore (Jude Law) and the main villain Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) were once lovers, and since Dumbledore is one of the only wizards who can defeat him, things get complicated.
This love affair created great anticipation among fans wondering how Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s sexuality and relationship would be revealed. Popular media hyped this up, and the Fantastic Beasts campaign rode that wave to the fullest, benefiting from the buzz and milking it for all it’s worth. However, when the movie hit theatres it did not meet expectations.
For one, it was unclear whether Dumbledore was actually gay or what kind of relationship he had with Grindelwald. The only hint is a brief statement where Dumbledore says that Grindelwald and himself were “closer than friends.” This is followed by a moment in the Mirror of Erised (mirror of dreams and desires), where Dumbledore sees a younger Grindelwald and himself together making a blood oath, which serves as the main reason stopping them from fighting each other.
In my opinion, these so called subtle hints are not enough, especially for teasing a “coming out” moment of Dumbledore and Grindelwald for so long. It can be confused as a deep bond of brotherhood or a complex friendship. Now, I am not saying that Dumbledore and Grindelwald have to go Fifty Shades of Grey down in the Hogwarts dungeons to be explicit, but a little romance would be nice. I believe a more emotional display of intimacy or sexual tension was needed. Maybe a tender kiss or a hand on each others cheeks would have been enough.
These criticisms may seem excessive, but not including the romantic complexities of Dumbledore and Grindelwald leaves the characters underdeveloped. In addition, there are many of the ex-lovers’ behaviours and motivations that are better understood with knowledge of their prior relationship. But most importantly, not including the romance signals to the gay community that their existence is still a taboo subject and one that cannot be portrayed fully in mainstream media.
With so much to gain why didn’t the director (David Yates) choose to not explicitly show Dumbledore’s sexuality? The most obvious reason is that Fantastic Beasts needed a large return of its 200 million dollar investment. It needed to make profit in countries that are notoriously anti-LGBTQ like China and Russia that would likely ban the movie. Earning $522.2 million worldwide, only $135.3 million in Canada and the USA, which meant the franchise highly relied on other countries to raise $386.9 million . With so much coming from more conservative countries, it is no wonder Fantastic Beasts didn’t want to risk getting banned in those countries.
However, there may be a glimmer of hope in the future of the Fantastic Beasts series. It is rumoured that Yates is just giving us a little tease of Dumbledore’s sexaulity and is going to reveal more in the following sequels. I am hopeful this is true. It’s important that Hollywood delivers us our LGBTQA characters and live up to praise they receive. More importantly, Hollywood and the film industry have a social responsibility to represent stories of marginalized groups despite social conservative backlash. Hopefully, films series like Fantastic Beasts will be the start.
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