“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” was released on Blu-Ray last week and writer J.K. Rowling has been under heavy scrutiny for comments she said in an interview available through the bonus features with the film.
The second installment of a the planned five-film series was released in theaters this past November and many fans have been questioning the story since. The “Fantastic Beasts” series is a prequel series to the Harry Potter franchise, taking place from 1925-45, well before the start of the first Harry Potter in 1991. Unlike the Harry Potter franchise, Rowling is writing the series straight to screen, rather than being adapted from books.
Since its release in November, “Potterheads” (fans of the franchise) have been questioning the timeline of events that Rowling had originally laid out through the series for the past two-and-a-half decades. Now, with a new interview released this past week, fans have taken to Twitter to question and even harass the renowned writer for her new comments.
Included in her interview, Rowling gave a brief in-depth look into the life of Albus Dumbledore (portrayed by Jude Law), who we get to see as a younger man throughout the series. Rowling goes on to say that he and antagonist Gellert Grindelwald (portrayed by Johnny Depp), had a homosexual relationship and were very much in love with each other.
To go further, Rowling goes into detail about their sexual relationship, which fans were quick to attack her on.
“Their relationship was incredibly intense. It was passionate and it was a love relationship. But as it happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label you want to put on it, one never knows really what the other person is thinking,” Rowling said in an interview titled “Distinctly Dumbledore.” “So, I’m less interested in the sexual side – though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship – than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships.”
Fans took to this by storm and immediately went after the writer, saying she was giving too much information and that it’s unnecessary to the story.
But Rowling said in a Q&A in 2007 that Dumbledore, was in fact, gay, and that he had a relationship with Grindelwald, so why are people attacking her now over something that was revealed over a decade ago?
The character of Dumbledore, who, in my opinion, is one of the most well-known characters in literary history, had a sexual and loving relationship with the main antagonist of this prequel series. Why would that be unnecessary to the storyline of this new franchise? If anything, it is one of the most prominent aspects of this series, because how can the protagonist defeat the antagonist if they are in love?
All I have to say to this controversy is, trust the process! Rowling began her “Wizarding World” on coffee shop napkins almost 30 years ago and has made one of the most successful franchises in world history.
Rowling knew how the seventh Harry Potter book would end before she even finished writing the first book, so what makes anyone think that she doesn’t know how this franchise is going to end as the third film is about to begin its production in August?
Personally, I have been a fan of the franchise since my mother began reading the first Harry Potter book to me chapter by chapter before bed every night at 5 years old. I reread the series at least once a year and it never gets old for me. The Wizarding World is something that I hold near and dear to my heart and in my experience, Rowling has never let me down over the past 20 years, so I’m going to continue to trust her moving forward.
If you don’t think she has a plan for this, you shouldn’t be a fan at all.
“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is now available on Blu-Ray and Digital platforms everywhere. The third film in the five-part series is set to start production this August and release in theaters in November 2020.
Ken Downey Jr. is the Features Editor for Time OFF and Packet Publications. This is a part of his series of weekly columns focusing on arts and entertainment. He can be contacted at [email protected].