An act of appeasement to Chinese censors has sparked heat and criticism on social media after Warner Bros. cut dialogue that referenced Dumbledore's same-sex romance in ''Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.''
According to Variety, Warner Bros. ''accepted China's request to remove six seconds from the movie,'' which runs 142 minutes. The content in question ''alluded to the romantic past'' between the film's main characters, Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Variety said that ''the dialogue lines 'because I was in love with you' and 'the summer Gellert and I fell in love' were cut from 'The Secrets of Dumbledore.'''
After the announcement, several media figures and outlets criticized the entertainment giant's decision.
According to Fox News, in one instance, Out Magazine, the LGBTQIA+ publication, condemned the decision, tweeting, ''It's a shame that, in 2022, certain countries are still censoring LGBTQIA+ characters in film and television.''
Vox.com podcast editor Matt Collette said of Warner Bros. and author and co-screenwriter J.K. Rowling, who in 2009 declared that Dumbledore was gay, that in regard to the cut, ''it seems likely that Warner Bros. and JKR were never particularly willing to go there either.''
And BuzzFeedNews' Brandon Wall tweeted, ''It's pathetic how willing movie studios are to censor even the most perfunctory LGBTQ+ token moments (in this case, six seconds) in order to secure a China release.''
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