Entertainment
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 4.14.22

Warner Brothers Bows To China, Removes Gay Reference From 'Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore'

Warner Brothers Bows To China, Removes Gay Reference From 'Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore'

Entertainment
Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 4.14.22

If parents in the United States do not want their kids subjected to talk of homosexual relationships companies like Warner Bros. are not going to budge.

But when it comes to China the story changes.

The motion picture company has confirmed that it has removed some dialogue from “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.” Namely the talk about a past, gay relationship, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

The studio has taken out clear references to Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindelwald’s (Mads Mikkelsen) romantic past.

The lines “I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love” officially make it canon for the first time in the Harry Potter franchise that the beloved Hogwarts professor is gay and had a romantic relationship with the dark wizard.

The cuts amount to just six seconds of the film’s 143-minute runtime, but are rather pivotal to establishing the characters.

“As a studio, we’re committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we release, and that extends to circumstances that necessitate making nuanced cuts in order to respond sensitively to a variety of in-market factors,” a spokesperson for the studio said. “Our hope is to release our features worldwide as released by their creators but historically we have faced small edits made in local markets. In the case of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros. accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact. We want audiences everywhere in the world to see and enjoy this film, and it’s important to us that Chinese audiences have the opportunity to experience it as well, even with these minor edits.”

The response on Twitter was harsh.

“Warner Bros. removed ‘gay dialogue’ from the Chinese cut of the upcoming ‘Fantastic Beasts 3.’ Big business complies when China wants something, but if YOU want your five year old child to not be groomed you’re a racist, bigoted, domestic terrorist,” Republican Congressional candidate Dr. Willie J. Montague said.

“So as it turns out the ‘inherently queer’ story of Fantastic Beasts 3 has been censored in China by removing *six seconds* of dialogue Wow, so much representation,” another Twitter user said.

“If you can remove the representation from your movie by taking out less than ten seconds of content that’s not representation that’s box-ticking pandering,” she said.

“Hollywood gets unwoke real fast when their Chinese market payday is on the line,” political science professor Eddie Zipperer said.

“<Warner Bros> We believe in diversity and inclusion! Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill should be repealed. Gay people deserve to be seen and heard! <China> We do not want gay people to be seen or heard. <Warner Bros> WE AGREE,” another Twitter user said.

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