Harry Potter’s wise old mentor Professor Albus Dumbledore is undoubtedly one of the best-known gay figures of 21st-century literature.
But the path to his outing was not a straightforward one and the portrayal of his sexuality, from The Cursed Child to Fantastic Beasts, remains… complicated. Here’s the story of Dumbledore’s queerness.
JK Rowling outs Dumbledore
Harry Potter creator JK Rowling outed Hogwarts’ late headmaster in October 2007 during a book tour appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall, saying that she “always thought Dumbledore was gay” and explaining that his feelings for the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald was his “great tragedy”.
Some fans were very excited, and Rowling apparently responded to the reaction of her audience by saying, “If I had know this would have made you so happy, I would have told you years ago.”
But critics pointed out that she hadn’t revealed this “years ago”. In fact, the series finale Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had been released months earlier in July 2007, and nowhere in the seven books was Dumbledore’s sexuality mentioned or even alluded to, unless think his coding as a “confirmed bachelor” counts (it doesn’t).
Queer fans across the world could search the pages of the books for as long as they liked without finding themselves represented in the Wizarding World. But whatever the case, the word was out. Dumbledore was one of the family.
Coda: Queerbaiting the Cursed Child
Dumbledore makes a brief appearance (as a painting) in the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Framed as it was by his troubled relationship with the now adult Harry, it’s understandable that his sexuality didn’t naturally come up in conversation – although it remains another missed opportunity to make his queerness fully canon.
The larger controversy was caused by the Cursed Child script, which was released at the same time as the stage play opened in London’s West End. Some fans, who were upset that the extremely close relationship between main characters Albus Potter and Scorpius didn’t end in a romance – and after the continued absence of LGBTQ+ characters in the series – cried “queerbaiting”.
And again, Rowling’s habit of trying to retcon her stories emerged when she responded to Noma Dumezweni’s casting as Hermione in The Cursed Child by claiming that she had never specified that the character was white – other than on all the book covers and in the casting of Emma Watson, we guess.
Fantastic Beasts brings Dumbledore back!
LGBTQ+ fans were excited to hear that 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them would be the first of a five-film series stretching from 1926-1945 – the period in which Dumbledore’s former lover/crush (it’s never been clarified which) was attempting to conquer the muggle world.
Jude Law was cast as young Dumbledore (well, if the 45-year-old can be considered ‘The Young Pope’…) in the second movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald. It looked like we might be getting somewhere, even if he was going to be playing against Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. There could be no good reason not to canonise the professor’s sexuality now, right? Especially not after taunting us with hot Dumbledore in his shirtsleeves.
Sadly, the now familiar flies of disappointment were swimming in the Harry Potter ointment again, though…
But Dumbledore looks set to disappoint
Apparently not up to speed on the controversy, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald director David Yates decided to reveal that the next movie would “not explicitly” engage with Dumbledore’s sexuality.
“I think all the fans are aware of that [aspect of his life],” he told Entertainment Weekly. “He had a very intense relationship with Grindelwald when they were young men. They fell in love with each other’s ideas, and ideology and each other.” (“That’s a pity”, noted the portrayer of popular culture’s other wizard of uncertain orientation, Ian McKellen.)
Law later revealed that he doesn’t share any scenes with Grindelwald, anyway. Maybe Yates and Rowling (who wrote the screenplay) are ‘following to the demands of the story’ or something, but it’s not the boldest choice at this point.
The Mirror of Erised redux
The latest wrinkle in the tale of Dumbledore’s queerness is an intriguing one. The trailer for The Crimes of Grindelwald released at San Diego Comic-Con shows Law’s character looking into the Mirror of Erised. First seen way back in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the mirror shows the person who looks into it the thing that they most desire.
The older Dumbledore claimed that he saw socks in the mirror (right…), but it hinted that it was really his reunited family that he could see standing around his reflection. However, in the trailer, Law’s Dumbledore sees none other than Grindelwald in the glass.
Was this a latter addition in response to the backlash? Because it feels reasonably ‘explicit’ to show that Dumbledore’s greatest desire is another man. Or perhaps Yates failed to express himself clearly in his original comments.
Either way, this autumn we may finally get incontrovertible, textual proof that Dumbledore is gay. The LGBTQ+ community will be watching very closely…
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will be released on November 16.
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