When it comes to HBO’s Harry Potter series, I’ve been very curious to see which looks and costumes they keep the same and which evolve. There are some things that likely won’t change, like Harry’s round glasses or the Weasleys' ginger hair. However, other elements might shift in slight ways. And one fan just had a spot-on take about the actor playing Draco Malfoy that shows one minor, yet effective, way this could happen.
Earlier in June, Draco and Lucius Malfoy were cast alongside a series of other supporting characters like Molly Weasley, the Dursleys and Seamus Finnigan. Speaking about Draco specifically, Lox Pratt will take on the role originated by Tom Felton, and his headshot featured him with very curly blonde hair.
This is where the take comes in, as @nikicaga reposted a side-by-side image of Pratt and Felton as Draco in one of the early Harry Potter films and wrote:
Incredible showcase of the change of what is the ‘annoying rich white boy haircut’ in 2000 and 2025
Now, if you click into the post, you can see that Lox Pratt has curly blonde hair. Meanwhile, Felton famously rocked the platinum blonde slicked-back hair. Obviously, there’s a chance the new Draco will have this look too, seeing as the image of this new young actor is a headshot, not a character poster. However, the point this fan made is worth examining.
In the early 2000s, the slicked-back look was commonplace, especially for characters who were perceived as evil or bad boys. Take Chuck Bass in Gossip Girl, for example. He was annoying and rich and, in most cases, pretty bad, and he rocked variations of the slicked and structured look throughout the show's run. Meanwhile, characters like Nate and Dan, who weren’t as rich or mean, had more natural and thoughtfully disheveled looks.
Meanwhile, these days, the entitled rich kids tend to wear less hair gel and rock more natural looks. Take the Amazon Prime new show on the 2025 TV schedule, We Were Liars, as an example. This series, which comes out on June 18 and follows an affluent and morally grey family, features a teenage character played by Joseph Zada, and he notably has wavy blonde hair.
So, I think this point @nikicaga made is worth thinking about. Style and trends evolve and change all the time. When it comes to hair, right now, people – and especially younger folks – are going with their natural hair and using significantly less hair gel, no matter how much money and bad vibes they have.
However, again, we don’t really know what the Harry Potter show’s Draco will look like. It’s totally possible that they’ll get the gel out and slick it back, just like they did with Felton in the early HP movies. But if they were to update Draco's look to stick with Pratt’s curly hair, I think that would be fitting too.
Really, either way works, and I can’t wait to see this new actor as Harry Potter’s nemesis. Along with him, I am also so excited to watch the new Harry, Ron and Hermione actors on screen. Now, Dominic McLaughlin (Harry), Arabella Stanton (Hermione) and Alastair Stout (Ron) obviously don’t look exactly like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. However, they do radiate the same energy, and I find that’s the case with our new Draco actor, too.
So, really, no matter what looks they go with, whether they’re the same as the movies, or slightly different, I’m sure they’ll do a good job and capture the essence of their characters well.
However, we’ll have to wait a while to see them do that, because the Harry Potter series won’t be released for a while. So, in the meantime, you can go back and see the actors who originated the roles, slicked back hair and all, by streaming the beloved fantasy movies with an HBO Max subscription.
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