Freddie Mercury Gets De-Gayed in New ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Teaser

In the first teaser for Bohemian Rhapsody, we get a look at Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, and it’s pretty fantastic. When it was announced that the calm Mr. Robot would be playing the flamboyant lead singer of Queen, fans had their doubts. Doubts that, after watching this teaser, have probably left.

The beginning of the teaser shows a little montage of Mercury’s many fabulous outfits, so lucky for us, we’re starting good, strong and gay.

The teaser frames Mercury as a misunderstood music genius. “This is where the operatic section comes in,” Mercury says to a confused to Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May, played by Gwilym Lee. “I feel bad for your wife if you think six minutes if forever,” Mercury quips at another character, referring too the criticism that one of his song’s is too long.

It’s unclear at this point if Freddie Mercury’s characterization will just be written as eccentric and odd or if they’ll give him some sort of queer storylinethe teaser seems devoid of any actual queer partnerships. Call me a cynic, but I think it’s possible that the studio would want to market this movie to the many straight white dads who wish to educate their sons about “good music” and with that, they might exclude the good gay shit.

They did, however, make sure to get a Middle Eastern actor to play Mercury, so maybe they are interested in accuracy.

“The only thing more extraordinary than their music is his story,” the title cards say throughout the teaser. Hopefully that means producers are interested in showing his full story.