Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was released this past weekend in China, and did so with a variety of cuts made to the film, with the country censoring any references to same-sex relationships in the film.
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According to a recent report from Deadline, the Chinese censors requested a cut which Warner Bros. accepted to “comply with local requirements. Six seconds were cut from the film, all of which reference a past romantic relationship between Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore and the villainous wizard Gellert Grindelwald. The report notes that two lines were removed, including “because I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love.” The first is a line of dialogue and the second is a voiceover.
Of course, this is not the first time that China has required a film to be censored to remove subject matter focusing on same-sex relationships. Despite the censorship, the film debuted at No. 1 in China this past weekend, grossing $9.8 million despite about half of movie theaters being closed in the country due to the recent spike in COVID-19 in China.
In a statement from Warner Bros., the company acknowledged the censoring but said that the “spirit” of the film, as well as the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, remain present despite the changes.
“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,” said the statement. “Our hope is to release our features worldwide as locked 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.”
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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Ezra Miller as Credence, Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Jessica Williams as Professor Lally Hicks, and Callum Turner as Theseus, with Mads Mikkelsen as the new Gellert Grindelwald.
Additional cast includes Victoria Yeates, William Nadylam, Richard Coyle, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Oliver Masucci, Maria Fernanda Cândido, and Dave Wong.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is once again directed by David Yates from a screenplay written by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves. Producers are Heyman, Kloves, Rowling, Lionel Wigram, and Tim Lewis.
