The Wizarding World as a larger franchise has been something of a mixed bag of late, what with the Fantastic Beasts movies running out of steam, and the recent announcement of a reboot to the Harry Potter franchise in the form of a Max streaming series. However, one place where the franchise has been quite successful is the recent Hogwarts Legacy video game, and now Tom Felton is getting in on the action and bringing Draco Malfoy with him.
The Hogwarts Legacy game was just released for the previous generation of game consoles and to promote that Tom Felton appeared in a video to take gamers through a little bit of a Let’s Play of one of his favorite parts of the game. And while Hogwarts Legacy is set a long time before the events of Felton’s movies, he found a way to bring Draco into the game, by designing his in-gamer character to strongly resemble his movie character. Check it out.
Creating a video game character in the likeness of another character from a film is something that a lot of people do, and it’s certainly never exact, but all things considered, this is a pretty solid likeness. It’s maybe the Draco of another era, but that fits with the story being told in the game.
And Felton largely plays the game as he likely would have played Draco Malfoy if this were a movie. He gets himself sorted into Slytherin, and he responds to the in-game story in very Malfoy sorts of ways. He’s truly having a lot of fun, almost getting emotional at times, as he experiences elements of the game that remind him of some of his own experiences while filming the Harry Potter movies.
It’s not that surprising that Felton would react so strongly to the game. As he says, those movies were his entire childhood, and while his childhood was certainly unlike others, it had a profound impact on him and his entire career. Felton will always be thought of as Draco Malfoy first and foremost. It's difficult to imagine him having another role that would have quite the same impact on him or on his audience.
The good news is that, while many actors have trouble as they try to break away from iconic characters like that, Tom Felton has seemingly been happy to embrace it. Felton has done work for the Harry Potter New York store to promote them and he has visited Universal Orlando Resort's Wizarding World as well, just as he’s doing for the Hogwarts Legacy game. And he’s still able to get new acting jobs, so it’s likely the best of all worlds.
What the future holds for Tom Felton in the Wizarding World remains to be seen. Despite the planned reboot, there is always the possibility that the original Harry Potter cast might get back together. Until then, there will always be something in the Harry Potter universe for fans to enjoy.
