This Wednesday, April 13, 2022 officially releases the film Fantastic Beasts 3 in our cinemas. An expected film whose production encountered some setbacks, starting with the dismissal of Johnny Depp. Soon available internationally, the 3rd part of the adventures of Norbert Scamander finally finds itself censored because of Dumbledore.
secrets of dumbledore censored
Although freedom of expression has come a long way in recent decades, censorship remains pervasive. The 7th art is not exempt from this and a good number of films find themselves forced to modify certain sequences, sometimes ranging from a few sentences to the entire end, like that of fight club, censored in China. The country that is often called the Middle Kingdom has a close relationship with censorship, found then in many forms. And you will have understood it but Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets had to kowtow to the CCP to be able to appear in Chinese theaters.
A light censorship, but heavy with meaning that will not please purists. And for good reason, it targets Dumbledore’s homosexuality, confirmed in 2009 once the books appeared, but never mentioned on screen. While the dialogues imply a past romantic relationship between Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen), China preferred to censor them. Thus, the lines “because i was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love” are missing from the Chinese version. In a statement to the Australian branch of News.com, Warner Bros explained:
“As a studio, we are committed to preserving the integrity of every film we release, and this extends to circumstances that require making nuanced cuts in order to respond sensitively to a variety of factors in the marketplace.
We hope to release our feature films worldwide as released by their creators, but historically we have had to deal with small edits in local markets. In the case of Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets, a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros agreed to these changes to comply with local requirements, but the spirit of the film remains intact.
We want viewers around the world to see and enjoy this film, and it’s important to us that viewers in China have the opportunity to experience it as well, even with these minor edits..”
“Minor modifications” which will thus allow the Chinese public to discover the third part of the Fantastic Beasts. The film was obviously ranked number 1 at the box office for its weekend of release, snatching only 10 million dollars in results. A discreet start that could be reversed after the international release this week. Anyway, French fans of the saga won’t have to wait long before they can discover this new feature film by David Yates.