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18 March 2022

Dumbledore declares love for Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts teaser

One fan wrote: "WHEN I TELL YOU I SCREAMED OH MY GODDDDD"

By Alastair James

Words: Alastair James; pictures: Warner Bros. Pictures

Dumbledore professes his love for his Grindelwald in a new promo for the next installment of the Fantastic Beasts series, and fans are losing it!

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the third film in the Harry Potter spinoff series and will see Dumbledore, played by Jude Law, come face to face with his former love interest, Gellert Grindelwald, played by Mads Mikkelsen. The latter took over the role from Johnny Depp after his court case with actress Amber Heard. 

In the new clip, the two can be seen sitting in a cafe where Dumbledore tells Grindelwald, who’s on a villainous quest to dominate all Muggles, that what he’s doing is “madness”.

“I was in love with you”

Grindelwald tells Dumbledore: “With or without you I’ll burn down their world. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. It was you who said we could reshape the world. It’s what we said we’d do.”

To this, Dumbledore replies: “Because I was in love with you.”

The clip has excited many fans who didn’t think the films would properly address the pair’s relationship. The author of the Harry Potter series confirmed Dumbledore was gay in 2007.

One person wrote: “i was so skeptical i thought they’d never portray dumbledore’s feelings for grindelwald but to have it not only fully mentioned AND to have an actual romantic plot between the two beyond that “i was in love with you” line?” before an excited “EEEEEE”.

Another person commented: “Just woke up and I had a minute to realize that all the Grindeldore’s content we got yesterday wasn’t something I dreamt of we really had Dumbledore saying he’s in love and coming out and Grindelwald asking him if he frequently come to this Caffe to pick up men.” (the latter part is not addressed in the film… as far as we know…)

One person tweeted the last part of the characters exchange before adding, “WHEN I TELL YOU I SCREAMED OH MY GODDDDD”

And one person said what we were all thinking: “Gay Dumbledore is the only reason I am watching these new HP movies. I am glad they are not shying away from it.”

A separate clip from the film shows Dumbledore showing off a magical blood pact he and Grindewald made years earlier meaning they can’t fight one another. Asked why he would do such a thing Dumbledore’s first response is: “love”. 

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is in cinemas on 15 April. 

Attitude’s new-look March/April issue is out now.

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