Jude Law Discusses Dumbledore’s Sexuality for Harry Potter Spin-Off Fantastic Beasts Sequel

Jude Law
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - JANUARY 07: Actor Jude Law attends The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Actor Jude Law will be playing a much younger version of Dumbledore in the sequel to Fantastic Beasts titled, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and he recently discussed the character’s sexuality in the upcoming film.

Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts Scribe J.K. Rowling had previously revealed that Dumbledore is actually gay. However, it was never explicitly stated in any of the books. Rowling made the announcement nearly a decade ago at New York’s Carnegie Hall during a fan Q&A.

“Dumbledore is gay, actually. I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy.”

Rowling would go on to detail that Dumbledore had a relationship with Gellert Grindelwald, who fell to the dark side.

Despite Rowling’s announcement the character has never made any inclination of his sexuality on his screen. In fact, director David Yates of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald told Entertainment Weekly that Dumbledore would “not explicitly” been shown as gay. He would go on to add:

“But I think all the fans are aware of that. 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.”

Jude Law echoed Yates’ statement in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, but did hint that future films could explicitly show the wizard as gay:

“Jo Rowling revealed some years back that Dumbledore was gay. That was a question I actually asked Jo and she said, yes, he’s gay. But as with humans, your sexuality doesn’t necessarily define you; he’s multifaceted. I suppose the question is: How is Dumbledore’s sexuality depicted in this film? What you got to remember this is only the second Fantastic Beasts film in a series and what’s brilliant about Jo’s writing is how she reveals her characters, peels them to the heart over time. You’re just getting to know Albus in this film, and there’s obviously a lot more to come. We learn a little about his past in the beginning of this film, and characters and their relationships will unfold naturally which I’m excited to reveal. But we’re not going to reveal everything all at once.”

Law would then discuss his relationship with Johnny Depp who plays Grindelwald:

“I don’t actually have any scenes with Johnny. As I said before, this is only Part 2 of a longer story. I’ve always admired him from afar, but we don’t know each other, and I’ve not yet met him on this. In many ways that suits the relationship as it’s been many years since they’ve seen each other. So there’s complexity in that that’s fun to mine. Again, the past will reveal itself.”

Do you want to see Dumbledore explicitly portrayed as gay in future Fantastic Beasts entries?

There will be five Fantastic Beasts movies in total as confirmed by author J.K. Rowling.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits theaters on November 16, 2018.

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