Netflix is reportedly developing a new series based on a classic novel – and fans are already mad.
Deadline reported this week that Oscar Wilde’s 1891 The Picture Of Dorian Gray was gaining new life in the form of The Grays, a series in development by Netflix alongside Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
Netflix declined to comment on the report, which might indicate the project is still in its early stages.
But fans of the original novel are not happy with the direction the series is going in.
Deadline reported The Grays would be “a contemporary take on the Oscar Wilde classic about our fascination with eternal youth set against the backdrop of the modern beauty industry”.
“In a twist on the gothic novel, the series revolves around siblings Basil and Dorian Gray.”
In Wilde’s original novel, the artist Basil Hallward is infatuated with the beauty of his friend, Dorian Gray.
After Basil paints a portrait of Dorian, the latter sells his soul to keep his youthful beauty, and things go awry from there.
Although homosexuality was illegal in the UK during Wilde’s life, The Picture Of Dorian Gray is widely considered to contain strong undercurrents of homo-eroticism in the relationship between Basil and Dorian.
While the romantic and sexual attraction between the two characters was never explicitly labelled, it was more clear in the original 1890 version of the story published in a magazine.
For example, at one point Basil says to another character about Dorian: “Don’t take away from me the one person that makes life absolutely lovely to me and that gives to my art whatever wonder or charm it possesses”.
He also tells Dorian, “I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man should ever give to a friend.”
For many fans of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, the queer themes in the story reflected Wilde’s identity; although Wilde was married and had children, he was known to sleep with men, and was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ (homosexual acts) and sentenced to two years’ hard labour in 1895.
This is why Netflix’s reported plans to transform Basil and Dorian into siblings has struck the wrong chord.
Some social media users compared Netflix’s reported decision to AMC’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, which brought the undercurrents of romantic relationships between male characters to the forefront of the story.
One Threads user described the move as “straight-washing” seminal queer literature.
“Queer censorship on The Picture of Dorian Gray in the year 2024 is insane,” one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Hold on, you’re telling me that the relationship between Basil and Dorian that was used IN COURT as evidence of Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality, AND SENT HIM TO JAIL, is going to be BROTHers?! Netflix no. Netflix what? https://t.co/ffvU47x9Hu
— Mickey (@MickeyHook) August 21, 2024
