JK Rowling hints Dumbledore’s gay life will be explored in Fantastic Beasts films

JK Rowling has hinted that Albus Dumbledore’s sexuality will be explored in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. According to the author, the next five films will give fans a lot of backstory into the Potterverse.

At a press conference in New York on Thursday (10 November), Rowling and producer David Heyman said there would be more ‘connective tissue’ to the original novels in the new five-part film series. It will also shine a light on one of its most beloved inhabitants, Hogwarts’ headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who will appear in the second film.

When one of the attending journalists, Screen Crush’s Erin Whitney, asked whether we’d see Dumbledore as openly gay, Rowling got teasing.

‘Well, I can’t tell you everything I would like to say because this is obviously a five-part story, so there’s lots to unpack in that relationship,’ she said.

‘I will say that you will see Dumbledore as a younger man, and quite a troubled man, because he wasn’t always the sage. He was always very clever, but we’ll see what I think was the formative period of his life. As far as his sexuality is concerned, watch this space.’

Earlier this week, it was confirmed Johnny Depp will play Dumbledore’s male love interest, villain Gellert Grindelwald. The casting sparked outrage among some fans, who said Depp shouldn’t have been engaged following the alleged domestic abuse of his former wife, bisexual actress Amber Heard.

At the press event, Rowling said she was ‘delighted’ to see Depp take on the role, while director David Yates called him an ‘extraordinary talent’ and ‘a huge Harry Potter fan’.

The first installment of the movie series, titled Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, will hit cinemas on 18 November. Starring The Danish Girl star Eddie Redmayne as young and slightly clumsy magizoologist Newt Scamander, Fantastic Beasts is set 70 years before the original Harry Potter books.