More than a decade after casting his last spell, Tom Felton, best known for playing Harry Potter’s bleach-blond nemesis, is returning to the wizarding world.
The actor will reprise his role as Draco Malfoy in the acclaimed stage production Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, making his Broadway debut.
Felton, 37, starred in the Harry Potter film franchise from 2001 to 2011, and has remained a fan favourite as one of the series’ most notorious characters. His return makes him the first film cast member to reprise the role on stage.
“Being a part of the Harry Potter films has been one of the greatest honours of my life,” he said. “Joining this production will be a full-circle moment for me.”
Felton will join the cast at New York’s Lyric theatre from 11 November for a 19-week run, the production confirmed on Thursday. First staged in London in 2016 and written by the Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is based on a story co-devised with JK Rowling.
Set 19 years after the original series, it follows Harry – now a Ministry of Magic employee – and his wife, Ginny, as they send their son Albus Severus to Hogwarts. The play explores Albus’s struggles with his family legacy, navigating strained friendships and the burden of a famous surname.
The play’s producers, Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, called the return “a cultural moment charged with nostalgia, evolution, and emotion”. They said: “We can’t wait to see him inhabit this role once again with the same depth, gravity, and humanity he has always brought to Draco.”
The production has been running on Broadway since 2018, originally in two parts lasting five hours, but since 2021 as a single three-and-a-half-hour production. The production in London remains in two parts.
Felton recently featured in the West End in 2:22 A Ghost Story. Since the Potter films, he has appeared in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and had recurring roles in series such as Murder in the First, The Flash and Origin.
He lent his voice to the Harry Potter video games and appeared in the 20th anniversary special, Return to Hogwarts alongside Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
The Potterverse continues to expand, with filming due to start this summer for HBO’s new small-screen adaptation of Rowling’s books.
