‘Harry Potter’ actor Tom Felton Reflects on Draco Malfoy’s Redemption Journey in the Franchise

The wizardry world of Harry Potter has numerous incredible characters who strengthen the story’s narrative. There are characters whom we root for, and there are also those whom we greatly despise, but it’s hard to avoid their presence. The ultimate villain of the Harry Potter franchise is the dark lord, Voldemort, against whom the students and professors at Hogwarts fight. However, there are also people in the wizarding community who are just as corrupt and nasty as they are in our world. One of them is Draco Malfoy, who finds pleasure in bullying others. in the initial Harry Potter movies.  

The character brought to life by Tom Felton is often regarded as a major antagonist of the franchise. However, the Potterheads seem to widen their perspective over time and are now seeing the character of Draco in a new light. Rather than considering him as a villainy figure, fans now see him as an anti-hero character. 

Draco Malfoy, a divisive character in the Harry Potter franchise

A character is defined by his traits. If he is a man who serves people and helps them, he is considered a hero, and if he is a tyrant and a bully, he is obviously taken to be a diabolical. Yet what gives viewers a chance to expand their perspective is a backstory attached to the villain, which emphasizes the circumstances in which he chose to become so. Referring to Harry Potter’s villainous character, Draco Malfoy, fans are now trying to reevaluate his redemption by reconsidering why he became a bully. 

Draco, who is often cruel to Harry and fond of going after “the little guy,” tends to have a terrible past that coaxed him to be a bully who tricks and hurts people to get what he wants. The reason why Draco is so is his Death Eater parents, who forced their evil ideologies onto him from a young age, which stemmed from his diabolic behavior towards his fellow mates.

While the older fans of Harry Potter see Draco as a bad guy, with generations passing, a faction of the audience placed more emphasis on his past story, reevaluating the character’s deeds. 

Tom Felton, who portrayed Draco, recently reflected upon Draco’s legacy and how his character has been viewed in a new light in recent years. Speaking with Us Weekly, Felton spoke about how the Harry Potter franchise has “so many different subtle arcs now that are being discovered” by fans. Felton said:

“I do love the fact that people — I mean, obviously, he is slimy, he’s not exactly the most desirable character at times — but it’s nice to see. It’s really, really cool to see the correlation between the fact that Harry had no parents and that he came out brilliantly with honor, love, and respect. Truth is at the heart of it. Draco has both parents but not-so-good ones, and he ends up being the bully.

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. I think it’s really quite cool.”

While it’s worth reevaluating Draco’s character and not labeling him as a villain, rather considering him as an anti-hero character. It’s indeed necessary to remember that Harry also faced plenty of bullying growing up, which was similar to Draco’s traumatic childhood as he was tormented by his own parents, but regardless of their similar childhoods of being bullied as kids, they both chose different ways in their lives. While Draco was subjected to bullying in his childhood, ended up being the person who bullied others. On the other hand, Harry grew up to be a hero who helped others.