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One of the original “Harry Potter” actors is reprising their role for the stage play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, but it won’t be one of the good guys. Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy – tormenter of Harry and his friends – in all eight “Harry Potter” films, will play an adult version of the character in the Broadway play.
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Felton announced the casting on TODAY, where he talked about what a unique opportunity it was to return to the role.
“It’s very much a pinch-me situation,” Felton said. “I keep thinking I’m dreaming. I let go of that character 16 years ago, and now I get to step back into his shoes, as a father this time, in a new story.”
Felton’s casting represents a number of firsts. Not only will this make him the first member of the original film cast to join the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” stage play, but it will also represent Felton’s Broadway debut.
“‘Potter’ was a massive chunk of my childhood, and now I get to sort of go back whilst also going forward,” Felton said.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” takes place 19 years after the conclusion of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, when the children of Draco, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are attending Hogwarts.
Felton is a fitting addition to the cast, considering how the play turns fan expectations on their heads. Rather than history repeating itself, Harry’s son Albus is sorted into the Slytherin house, where he befriends Draco’s son Scorpius.
“The play is such an independent story from the ‘Potter’ films that I grew up with,” Felton said. “We start 19 years later … now we’re no longer children. We actually are the parents.”
“So as much as it is reprising an old role for me, it’s very much treading into new, unfamiliar territory. I know [Draco] quite well as a kid. I don’t know him that well as an adult. So that’s the that’s the exciting challenge ahead for me.”
This news comes a little over a week after the casting news dropped for the heroic child trio of the upcoming “Harry Potter” HBO Max reboot series. Newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout will play the respective roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley.
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