Earlier today, we reported that Malaysia’s decidedly homophobic censorship board would allow Disney’s live-action Beauty And The Beast to screen in the country without edits, and now another big movie with a well-publicized (yet similarly minor) LGBT element has made it past the censors unscathed. According to Variety, Malaysia has given Power Rangers the go-ahead for release in the country, granting it the same “P13” rating that Beauty And The Beast received.
This news seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to pretty much everyone, as Variety even notes that “major Malaysian cinema chains” started to pull the movie from online ticket websites earlier this week. It’s possible that the censors simply didn’t want to face more blowback like they did when Disney refused to create a gay-free edit of Beauty And The Beast, but it seems just as likely that Power Rangers’ own “gay moment”—which is reportedly an implication that one character is questioning her sexuality—didn’t really register. Either way, people in Malaysia will now get another chance to see a movie that acknowledges the existence of gay people, which is a step in the right direction.