I feel a little bad for the person behind the Twitter account for the Fantastic Beasts film franchise. They likely could not have anticipated the property turning toxic by its association with transphobic author J.K. Rowling or the casting (and then un-casting) of Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. Fantastic Beasts began its life in 2016 as a historical wizarding world romp involving magical creatures and starring Marius from Les Misérables in a bow tie, and for a while, all was well.
These days, however, anything associated with Rowling—who has quintupled down on her now widely-known transphobia—feels cursed. Once-loyal fans have rightfully abandoned her in droves, and the second Beasts movie, which stuck with Johnny Depp despite his very public controversies, was panned as incoherent and overdone. (Rowling wrote the screenplay.) Even Jude Law in a snazzy costume as a young Albus Dumbledore couldn’t save this ungainly creature.
Some actors from the franchise have since denounced Rowling and taken stands for trans rights. But Warner Bros. is sticking to their commitment to the bit and an apparent plan for five whole movies in this universe. And so the third film recently revealed its title: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
This is where I stop feeling bad for the person or persons behind the Beasts Twitter account, because they are currently committing a cardinal Internet marketing sin. The account has been hiding lots of Twitter replies to the movie title announcement. This, of course, invokes the Streisand effect, wherein “an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information has the unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that information.”
Suddenly, everyone’s attention is being drawn to those hidden replies, and more and more people are engaging and producing content in the thread that Beasts/Warner Bros. doesn’t want seen. And by hiding the replies, the account also just makes it easier to view all of that offending content en masse for our viewing pleasure. If this is the reaction to the posting of a title card reveal alone, I cannot even begin to imagine what lies in wait for us as more information and publicity about the movie is rolled out.
#FantasticBeasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in theaters April 15, 2022. pic.twitter.com/l27HbuwW9f
— Fantastic Beasts (@FantasticBeasts) September 22, 2021
The Beasts account has not hidden many critical reactions from what appears to be a legion of Johnny Depp fans incensed that the actor was asked to resign as bad wizard Grindelwald. (Mads Mikkelsen, who deserves better, is taking on the role for the third film.) So while many other replies in the title announcement thread are hidden (and some pro-Depp replies with curse words), there is a viewable raft of content like this.
If I had to see it, so do you:
These movies aren’t worth watching without Johnny Depp pic.twitter.com/0AEqOV6GEn
— María ⚡🏴☠️🏳️🌈 (@maria7diAngelo) September 23, 2021
Yeah. So.
— public universal foe (@BinarySchminary) September 23, 2021
Now, granted, quite a bit of the written content that was hidden was rather sexual in nature, as people (in this case, hilariously) trolled the movie. Many who are outraged about Rowling’s harmful stances are Extremely Online, and this sort of thing is what they do best. It is a losing game to try and fight it. The title centering around Dumbledore only provoked this reaction further, considering that the character is at this point bound up in how Rowling revealed that he was gay to much fanfare in 2007 (which feels like a century ago) but has done nothing to actually let Dumbledore evidence that.
Again I feel must tell the social media folks at Warner Bros. that hiding content like “the sexnuts of dunglefuck” is only going to bring more attention to “the sexnuts of dunglefuck” and cause more people to reply with things like “the sexnuts of dunglefuck.”
The fact that this is a hidden reply is criminal, have this as a consolation prize, fam. pic.twitter.com/XC9j7QBJcv
— Nicotine, Caffeine and Fucking Rage (@AbyssalPen) September 24, 2021
Here is a smattering of some of these NSFW (now hidden) sentiments:
I do not envy their PR team, I’ll tell you that pic.twitter.com/phdrAUS8cA
— the.southern.pansy (@PansySouthern) September 23, 2021
There are quite a few in this vein! However, some more innocuous replies were also hidden—for example, this legitimate criticism:
Oh god… do I really have to do another one of these? The last one was so fucking bad.
— Ash Young (@ASHJY97) September 22, 2021
Or legitimate plot concerns.
If Grundle doesn’t give Dumble the dick then I’m rioting
— Ash Eats Trash (@goth_gunnywolf) September 23, 2021
Or this succinct reply telling Rowling “fuck you” in Portuguese.
Se fode J K Rowling
— mundinho house of Gucci (@Sacreddear) September 22, 2021
Or simple riffs on the title.
The secret of deez nuts
— Gavin 💖🐠 (@fralldarlus) September 23, 2021
If you’re on Twitter, here’s how to see those forbidden replies all in one place:
— aisha (@kveoreo) September 24, 2021
We await the PR campaign for Fantastic Beasts: The Sexnuts of Dunglefuck with much anticipation.
(via Twitter, image: Warner Bros.)
Here are some other things that weren’t hidden from us today:
- The terrible GOP-led “audit” of the 2020 election results in Arizona has found that Joe Biden did, in fact, win. (via NPR)
- Once again: Trump definitely lost. (via Vice)
- In other news, Rudy Giuliani has been banned from Fox News for three months. (via Politico)
- After removing their Robert E. Lee statue, Richmond, VA has unveiled an “Emancipation and Freedom” monument. (via WTKR)
- Two former cast members of Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill musical have accused the production of “harm to trans and non-binary communities.” (via Deadline)
- The largest space telescope will change how we see the universe. (via AppleNews)
- Singer Billie Eilish said she lost 100,000 followers because “people are scared of big boobs.” (via Yahoo)
- If you must know, Elon Musk and Grimes have apparently broken up. (via PageSix)
- Some headlines should be preserved: “James Marsters on ‘Buffy,’ a Violent Altercation with Joss Whedon, and John Barrowman’s Penis” (via Pajiba)
- A great breakdown of the problems in Dear Evan Hansen. (via the Los Angeles Times)
A good Tweet:
Today, we honor our friend Jim Henson, and the legacy of joy, love, and laughter that he shared with the world. ❤️ #JimHensonBirthday pic.twitter.com/zQc7WpYTWD
— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) September 24, 2021
Happy Friday to all who celebrate!
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