J.K. Rowling aside.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore again looks at the early life of the Harry Potter character, Albus Dumbledore (played by Jude Law). The lines of dialogue axed from China run for six seconds, according to Variety. They allude to a previous relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald (played by Mads Mikkelsen). (Honestly if you blink you miss it.)

The specific lines are “because I was in love with you” and “the summer Gellert and I fell in love”. The cuts were made at the request of authorities in China. and WB quickly obliged and has defended the edit.

“As a studio, we’re committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we release, and that extends to circumstances that necessitate making nuanced cuts in order to respond sensitively to a variety of in-market factors. Our hope is to release our features worldwide as released by their creators but historically we have faced small edits made in local markets. In the case of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros. accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact. We want audiences everywhere in the world to see and enjoy this film, and it’s important to us that Chinese audiences have the opportunity to experience it as well, even with these minor edits.”

The movie will not get a release in Russia because of the war in Ukraine. But expect similar cuts as those made in China to also be wielded for many parts of the Middle East.

So, now this begs the bigger question: If your representation was so paper-thin that all it took was cutting six seconds to make the text back into subtext, is that representation?

The Answer: no, no it is not,