The latest Marvel-Disney superhero movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, will not be released in Saudi Arabia, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Friday.
The apparent ban was due to the inclusion of a gay character in the movie, the Reporter said citing “Middle East sources.”
The new movie, a sequel to 2016’s Doctor Strange, was initially scheduled for release on May 5 in the Gulf states. In addition to Saudi Arabia, advance tickets for the movie are not available in Qatar or Kuwait, although they are still available in the United Arab Emirates.
Movies that feature LGBT references can be banned by the Saudi censors, the Reporter noted, and the new Doctor Strange features a lesbian character, America Chavez. Gay relationships are illegal in Saudi Arabia.
The ban comes after Marvel’s Eternals was not released as planned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or Kuwait in November 2021. The ban was imposed because of the inclusion of a same-sex couple in the movie, the Reporter and Variety said at the time.
The news of the Doctor Strange ban comes after Warner Brothers confirmed the studio removed a reference to a gay relationship from Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in the version of the movie released in China.
“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,” the studio told the Reporter on April 12. “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.”
In addition to increasing gay representation in their films, Marvel’s parent company Disney has begun to insert itself into domestic politics when matters related to homosexuality arise. The company recently spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Bill, prompting the state’s Republican legislature to strip the company of the autonomous governmental status that allows it to manage its amusement park free from zoning laws and other regulations and taxes.
The ban comes after Warner Brothers removed a reference to a gay relationship from the Chinese version of its latest Fantastic Beasts sequel at the Chinese Communist Party’s request.
The six-second clip that was scrubbed from Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore alluded to a homosexual romantic relationship between benevolent wizard Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen), characters in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter cinematic universe.
A Warner Bros. spokesman insisted that “the spirit of the film remains intact” despite the censorship.