With Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them finally in theaters, we now know that Grindelwald will have a big part in this series going forward, and naturally my first concern is if they’re going to show us his complicated relationship with Albus Dumbledore.
If you’ve read my work before, you know I’m passionate about LGBTQ representation in media. I spoke about J.K. Rowling missing an opportunity with Cursed Child and now she has another chance to redeem herself with the Fantastic Beasts series.
Fact: Dumbledore / Grindelwald is Harry Potter’s first canon LGBTQ relationship
“Relationship” may be putting it strongly, but we know from past interviews with Rowling that Dumbledore had fallen in love with Grindelwald, which is why Dumbledore found himself dabbling in the dark arts.
At the age of 17, the two of them were obsessed with the Deathly Hallows and the potential to control them. Dumbledore was infatuated, and his infatuation clouded him as he followed Grindelwald.
A disagreement between them led to a duel in which Ariana Dumbledore, Albus’ sister, was killed in the crossfire, which promptly ended Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s friendship. Grindelwald fled, formed his army, found the Elder Wand and continued to terrorize the wizarding community until the fateful day where Dumbledore and Grindelwald dueled one last time, ending the wizarding war and giving the Elder Wand to Dumbledore.
In an interview with Melissa Anneli in her book Harry, A History, Rowling states that this relationship was very one sided, and that Dumbledore’s romantic feelings for Grindelwald weren’t reciprocated. Rowling explains Grindelwald’s actions:
“I think he was a user and a narcissist and I think someone like that would use it, would use the infatuation. I don’t think that he would reciprocate in that way, although he would be as dazzled by Dumbledore as Dumbledore was by him, because he would see in Dumbledore, ‘My God, I never knew there was someone as brilliant as me, as talented as me, as powerful as me. Together, we are unstoppable!’ So I think he would take anything from Dumbledore to have him on his side.”
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Dumbledore is a gay character with an unrequited straight love. Ugh! This would be great to see on screen, not only because the substance is there for a great story, but because this is the only canon LGBTQ relationship we have.
To have a five-part series and not once delve into Dumbledore’s unrequited love for Grindelwald would be a huge mistake. It’ll be Cursed Child all over again, the only difference here being that Rowling will not be able to pull the last minute straight card with Dumbledore like she did with Albus/Scorpius, thank goodness.
‘Fantastic Beasts’ could be the first major franchise with a prominent LGBTQ+ character
We actually have the potential to feature a LGBTQ+ character in not just one major blockbuster but in four of them if Dumbledore makes his debut in the next one. That’s pretty exciting!
We don’t see nearly enough LGBTQ characters in major blockbuster movies, and in lead roles. In fact, Fantastic Beasts could be the first major franchise to “go there” — unless Star Wars beats them.
Even if Dumbledore isn’t the main character in the series, this is a chance for us to learn more about Dumbledore’s infatuation with Grindelwald and to learn why his love life was always so barren in the original Harry Potter series. In the same interview with Anelli, Rowling gave some great insight into this very topic:
So you can call it a fraternal bond, but I think it makes it more tragic for Dumbledore. I also think it makes Dumbledore a little less culpable. I see him as fundamentally a very intellectual, brilliant and precocious person whose emotional life was absolutely subjugated to the life of the mind – by his choice – and then his first foray into the world of emotion is catastrophic and I think that would forevermore stun that part of his life and leave it stultified and he would be, what he becomes. That’s what I saw as Dumbledore’s past. That’s always what I saw was in his past. And he keeps a distance between himself and others through humour, a certain detachment and a frivolity of manner.
Dumbledore’s entire romantic life has been affected by his infatuation with Grindelwald as a young(er) adult and it stands to reason that we should see this represented on screen. We have four, yes four, whole movies where we get to explore Grindelwald and Dumbledore, and where we get to explore what it feels like for a main character to fall in love with someone of the same gender.
That said, I’m not interested in Fantastic Beasts revolving around unrequited love. This series isn’t a romantic drama; it’s not going to focus that much on their relationship, but I do want to see this relationship out there.
Expectation: Normalize the LGBTQ+ character
Outing Dumbledore after the series was finished made it sound like his homosexuality is a big deal. Rowling states that Hogwarts is a safe place for LGBTQ+ students and yet there is no canonical proof of that. The proof would be normalizing Dumbledore’s sexuality as nothing more than just another fact.
I don’t want the characters in the rest of the Fantastic Beasts movies to make a big deal out of Dumbledore having a complicated relationship with Grindelwald. I mean, yes, it should be surprising that Dumbledore had feelings for the darkest wizard of their time, but it shouldn’t be surprising only because Grindelwald is a boy.
There have been many shows and movies pulling off the nonchalant, I-don’t-care attitude about boys kissing boys, the biggest example in my head being Teen Wolf. Characters in that show can be gay without being judged, and that’s exactly how I want this series to handle Dumbledore.
I want the filmmakers to introduce Dumbledore and acknowledge his awesomeness and his intellect and his prestige, but not his sexuality. I want them to normalize Dumbledore’s romantic interests, and by extension, help Hollywood normalize LGBTQ+ characters.
It’s time to treat LGBTQ+ characters like normal characters because they are normal. If this series doesn’t begin to normalize Dumbledore’s sexuality and prove to us that the Wizarding World really is safe for LGBTQ+ characters, I’m going to be very disappointed.
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