Jude Law as Dumbledore in the new Fantastic Beasts trailer (Photo: Twitter)
This post contains spoilers for Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald.
The hotly anticipated final trailer and film posters for the second Fantastic Beast film are out and people are a little shocked a major character revelation.
Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald follows on from 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Set for release on 16 November, the Crimes of Grindelwald is part of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter universe. The Fantastic Beasts series is set decades before the Potter books and follows magizoologist, Newt Scamander, on his adventures around New York.
The third trailer released on Tuesday gave a little more insight into the alleged gay relationship between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald.
Nagini’s story
But it also dropped a massive character revelation.
Audiences get a glimpse of Voldemort’s beloved serpent – and one of his seven horcruxes – Nagini. But we also see Nagini in human form, confirming fan theories that Nagini started as a human.
In the trailer actress Claudia Kim who plays Nagini, is seen performing at a circus. At the circus she transforms into the giant serpent. It is believed she is a Maledictus, ‘the carrier of a blood curse that destines her ultimately to transform into a beast’.
‘It will be so interesting to see another side of Nagini,’ Kim told EW .
‘You’ve only seen her as a Horcrux. In this, she’s a wonderful and vulnerable woman who wants to live. She wants to stay a human being and I think that’s a wonderful contrast to the character.’
But what really bugged people on LGBTI Twitter is the apparent relationship Nagini has with Creedence Barebone. In the movie’s posters and in the trailer it is alluded to that the two might be in a relationship.
In the posters Nagini and Creedence ‘intimately’ sit together.
(L-R) Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Ezra Miller as Creedence Barebone and Clauda Kim as Nagini | Photo: Twitter
Nope to Nagini’s storyline
People are mad that even though Rowling confirmed Dumbledore was gay, he will not be ‘explicitly gay’ in the Fantastic Beasts films. Twitter users asked why showing a relationship between a human and animal was OK, but not a gay relationship.
One Twitter user shared a meme with the caption ‘I can accept bestiality but I draw the line at homosexuality’.
‘jk when she makes a romantic arc with nagini but won’t make dumbledore gay,’ @zatannaszatara wrote on Twitter.
jk when she makes a romantic arc with nagini but won’t make dumbledore gay pic.twitter.com/711RdCjnRR
— hinata’s girlfriend (@zatannaszatara) September 25, 2018
JK Rowling randomly putting in that Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini was secretly a human woman this whole time for the past 20 years #FantasticBeasts pic.twitter.com/FYtq6LIfri
— ♡ (@chalametxstan) September 25, 2018
im also crying at jkr being like ‘ive been sitting on this nagini reveal for 20 years’ because it’s just so…. Typical that they will make voldemort’s snake girlfriend a plot point and not speak a word about dumbledore being gay
— ✍️ (@neonacropolis) September 25, 2018
Is it racist as well?
Some Twitter users also pointed out using an Asian actress to play a cursed and enslaved women who becomes Voldemort’s pet was racist.
Having Claudia Kim’s character (one of like three East Asian characters in the Harry Potter films) apparently turn into/be voldemort’s snake familiar Nagini in the upcoming movie is straight up racist (and literally dehumanizing no matter how they swing it)
Geez.
— stitch (she/they) (@stichomancery) September 25, 2018
i was gonna say ‘does jk rowling now exclusively write plots based on weird fanfic’ but ‘nagini is actually a woman who is permanently stuck as a snake’ is honestly too awful even for fic
— Jo (´･ω･`) (@jobeeart) September 25, 2018
wait so nagini is being played by an asian woman and she like…. becomes voldemort’s ”’pet”’???? is she…. is she a Fantastic Beast newt must Find???? oh this is bad. this is very very bad
— ✍️ (@neonacropolis) September 25, 2018
Albus and Gellert
Even though Dumbledore won’t be ‘explicitly gay’ in the movie, the trailer gives some insight into why he sends Scamander to ‘take down’ Grindelwald who has become a dark wizard and is ‘at large’.
Dumbledore is seen looking into the Mirror of Erised which shows people ‘nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts’.
In it we see that when Dumbledore looks into the mirror he sees two versions Grindelwald. The first is an older version of the dark wizard, with actor Johnny Depp playing the role.
The second is a younger version of Grindelwald whose image Dumbledore gently touches with affection. Actor Jamie Campbell Bower has reprised his role as young Grindelwald from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 films.
Watch the trailer here:
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