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Tom Felton is featured in all eight of the Harry Potter movies as Harry’s Hogwarts antagonist, Draco Malfoy. Ever since Harry rebuffed Malfoy’s friendship offer after he made fun of his friend Ron, the two were at each other’s throats throughout the series. But as it’s been 12 years since Deathly Hallows Part 2 came out, fans are seeing Tom Felton’s Slytherin character in a whole new light. With the British actor finding his villainous character’s redemption arc “cool,” I have to say that I agree with him.
In most of the Harry Potter films, Draco Malfoy tends to look down on Harry based on his friends and not being a pureblood like him. While it can be easy to villainize Malfoy, fans are looking back on the fantasy series realizing that the snarky wizard isn’t all that bad… or at least it’s not his fault that he is. Tom Felton told US Weekly that this is very “cool” news to hear about his character’s redemption arc after all of these years.
I mean obviously he’s a slimy, he’s not exactly the most desirable character at times. But, it’s nice to see, yeah, it’s really, really cool to see the correlation between the fact that Harry had no parents, and he came out brilliantly with honor, love and respect and truth being at the heart of it. And Draco having both parents, but not so good ones, and that he ended up being the bully because…You know, there’s so many different subtle arcs now that are being discovered, and I think it’s really cool. I think the redemption of Draco, slight redemption, I don’t think he was born to be the hero at all, but the slight understanding that he was a bully because he was basically bullied it’s quite cool.
It’s true that Draco Malfoy may not have been the hero at the end of the top-ranked Harry Potter film Deathly Hallows Part 2, but you couldn’t really call him a villain anymore. After all, he could have ratted out Harry in Malfoy Manor when he appeared there with a disguised face. Malfoy also could have killed Dumbledore in The Half-Blood Prince, but he couldn’t find it in himself to do so. It proves that the world isn’t all made up of heroes and villains; there are some who are shades of grey.
If you’re curious how Draco Malfoy suddenly got all of these fans, you can thank two online trends that amped up the character. With no more Harry Potter books left, the fan fiction community has written stories about the Hogwarts alum delving more deeply into the character. There’s also the TikTok trend called #dracotok where users romanticize or poke fun at the J.K. Rowling character. What makes these videos even more entertaining is when Tom Felton responds to Draco Malfoy fans in the form of duets in the shorts. No matter how many years it’s been, it proves that Harry Potter will always be in Felton’s heart.
Like Harry told Draco in The Goblet of Fire, “[Lucius Malfoy] is vile and cruel. And you’re just pathetic.” The Slytherin wizard is just following the teachings of his vicious parents because that’s all he has. When you get older, you can either continue to be just like your parents or be your own person. This is all the more reason why it’s a shame a deleted Deathly Hallows Part 2 scene of Malfoy throwing Harry’s wand to him didn’t make it in the final cut. It would have been a redeemable moment that squashed the rivalry between them. Then again, maybe that moment was taken out to avoid turning Harry Potter’s antagonist into a hero and to just have him be human.
Tom Felton and I are in total agreement that the redemption arc of Draco Malfoy over a decade later really is very “cool.” Malfoy may not have been popular during the run of the Harry Potter books and films (not even with the ladies), but with fans of the fantasy series getting older and still rewatching the movies, they see that he is just a victim of poor parenting that he brought with him during his schoolboy days.
If you’d like to relive the glory days of watching the rivalry between Harry and Malfoy, all of the Harry Potter movies can be found on your Peacock subscription.