One of the toughest challenges of playing a role in a book-adapted film franchise is when the upcoming books come before the movies do. Author J.K. Rowling has had to warn fans not to spoil the final Harry Potter book to avoid ruining it for those who haven’t read the book in one-shot like other fans have. It’s almost like fans love the idea of knowing something the general population may not know yet. Harry Potter’s Tom Felton understands that frustration as he had to do what he could to avoid spoilers while playing Draco Malfoy.
The Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book came out in 2005 with the film adaptation coming out four years later. While celebrating the opening of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour’s Mandrakes and Magical Creatures expansion, Tom Felton told Metro that while he took his time to read the Harry Potter books, his friends were beating him to the punch.
[But] I remember Half Blood Prince when that came out, me taking my time with it and then the phone constantly ringing, with friends trying to tell me, ‘Do you have any idea what happens to Dumbledore?!’ [I said] ‘No, please don’t give it to me!’ So I waited for as long as I could really, and obviously ultimately waited for the scripts to come out because there was obviously so much from the books that wasn’t able to be finished in there. I was thrilled to hear that we were able to put the last chapter into two parts – it sort of gave us more time to be able to enjoy each character’s final chapter.
At the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a major character death occurred when Professor Dumbledore was killed by Snape. It was considered a real shock to fans of the book, as Dumbledore played a central role as a father figure to Harry in training him to be a great wizard and defeating Voldemort. With social media and word-of-mouth, it can be hard to dodge spoilers. Some fans may attempt to read the book from start to finish in one day while others prefer to savor each moment of the book by taking their time. But once you discover something shocking in a major book franchise, you feel like you have to tell someone or you’ll just burst. Luckily, the Fantastic Beasts series helps keep the character of Dumbledore alive by learning more about his backstory.
Tom Felton was clearly born to play the role of Draco Malfoy, the bratty enemy of Harry during their school years at Hogwarts. Believe it or not, this English actor did not initially read the Harry Potter books at the time he auditioned for the first Harry Potter movie. He pretended to director Chris Columbus that he had the same knowledge of the books as the other Draco Malfoy hopefuls did. His clever deception and him being a “snotty kid” during his audition was actually what landed him the role as the cunning bully to Harry Potter.
This 34-year-old actor is an example of someone who may truly never leave the Harry Potter universe. He has a VIP pass towards the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and even supports the Fantastic Beasts film franchise by attending the premiere of the third movie. Felton also takes any opportunity he can to reunite with his Harry Potter chums like during the 20th-anniversary special. He told Metro that getting to see his Harry Potter family again brought him back to the old times they had together. While the lifelong Slytherin doesn’t think him and his Harry Potter co-stars will reunite for another Harry Potter movie anytime soon, maybe we can cross our fingers for him and Daniel Radcliffe to work together again. But this time, like the Draco Malfoy star previously said, we should see Tom Felton as the hero and Daniel Radcliffe as the villain.
It’s always nice to know that Tom Felton will never hold back on sharing his Harry Potter memories and keeping our favorite Wizarding franchise alive. You can currently watch him as our favorite Slytherin in the Harry Potter films on your HBO Max subscription.