International Poster for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" Hints at Themes of Pedophilia, Homoeroticism

By: Adam Quigley Posted: February 5, 2009 Filed under: Posters

Having never read all the way through the Harry Potter series, I can only hazard a guess as to how exactly the story ends. Or, you know, I could also spend two minutes looking it up on Wikipedia, or God forbid, actually finish reading the books. But I digress... as of right now, the only information I have regarding the latest Harry Potter film is what's been provided through its marketing campaign. And just as I was starting to put the pieces together, they go ahead and release this international poster for the film, opening up my understanding of its storyline to a whole world of speculation.

Click image for access to high res version.

Clearly, this poster offers substantial hints towards the forbidden romance that's beginning to blossom between Harry and Dumbledore. Seriously, just look at it. I mean really look at it. Look deep into Harry's longing eyes, as he stares soulfully toward the man who's asked him to come to his office a few times too many.

Now read the tagline.

See what I mean?

Suddenly, all that controversy over Dumbledore being gay makes sense to me. There's no doubt in my mind that all that fantasy fluff in the first five films was merely build-up to what this series is really about: a heartfelt exploration of true love, featuring a troubled youth who finds solace in a wise older man who helps him to hone his unique abilities. Perhaps Dumbledore will even educate him in the ways of violently shooting out white liquidy substances from his wand.

Facetious fan-fiction-esque theories aside, this poster clearly wasn't made for people who haven't read the book. For those who have, I'm sure there's a legitimate and sensible reason why this poster's sole focus is a close-up of Harry's face set against a reflection of Dumbledore. For those rare few like myself who haven't, however, it's hard to ignore the unintentional sexual undertones. Or, an equally likely possibility: all those years of "that's what she said" jokes have perverted my mind.

Yeah, it's probably the latter.

You can also check out the film's two other similary-themed (but decidedly less homoerotic) international posters over at Slashfilm.

[Source MyMovies.it and MSN via Slashfilm]