Harry Potter Dudley Actor Is Ready To Move On From Franchise
Harry Melling, who played Dudley throughout the Harry Potter franchise, shares his immense appreciation for the role but is also ready to move on.
Harry Potter actor Harry Melling, who played Dudley, says that while he is immensely grateful to have played a part in the franchise, he's now ready to move on. Based on the bestselling novels by author J.K. Rowling, the first film in the Harry Potter franchise was released back in 2001. The film, which is directed by Chris Columbus, introduces audiences to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson), who would go on to appear in all 7 subsequent sequels. Melling's Dudley was also introduced in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as Harry's obnoxious cousin, a role that he would reprise for many of the sequels.
Now more than 10 years removed from the last Harry Potter film, Melling reflects on his part in the franchise during an interview with Vanity Fair to promote his new film, The Pale Blue Eye. Melling shares that he's very appreciative of his time in the "brilliant" franchise, but also acknowledges that he's now ready to move on and focus on this next stage of his career and his new projects. Check out Melling's thoughtful comment below when asked if he's tired of being asked about the Harry Potter franchise:
“No…I mean, the easy answer is yes, but that’s not the full answer. I’m completely and overwhelmingly appreciative of being a part of something as brilliant as Harry Potter. I really am. I’m amazed at generationally how many people have been wrapped up in those stories. But it is amazing that something you did when you were 10 is still something that is very much a priority on the list of talking points. It’s just something that I’ve kind of got used to in a certain sense.
“Part of the fascination is like when you talk about old schoolmates and, ‘Oh, they’re doing this now?’ It’s that same culture of being fascinated by, ‘Oh, you’ll never guess what so-and-so is doing. I completely get it, but it’s a mixed bag of both feeling extremely grateful, but naturally, you want to move on. You want to be talking about the work that you’re doing now.”
How The Harry Potter Franchise Needs To Evolve
The franchise proper ended in 2011 with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, but the Wizarding World continued in the spin-off Fantastic Beasts franchise, which began in 2016. The three Fantastic Beasts movies have earned mixed reviews and each new installment saw declining box office revenue, meaning it's very likely that a discussed fourth entry will not be moving forward. After Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was met with a tepid response from fans and critics, the third installment attempted a course correction of sorts, featuring a larger role for Dumbledore (this time played by Jude Law) and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.
The direction of the third Fantastic Beasts film creates an interesting question for Wizarding World franchise moving forward: should it attempt to capture the same glory as the original Harry Potter franchise by bringing back familiar characters and locations, or should it blaze new ground and leave the past behind? It's undeniable that Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson are a core part of the reason why the original eight Harry Potter films were successful, and many fans are understandably interested in a movie or series catching up with what these characters are up to as they approach middle age. With Radcliffe seemingly not interested in returning as Harry just yet, however, the franchise would perhaps do well to explore an entirely new story with new characters.
What Harry Melling Has Done Since Harry Potter
Since appearing as Dudley, Melling has built a successful acting career with a variety of somewhat off-beat but well-received projects, including The Lost City of Z, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Devil All The Time, The Queen's Gambit, and The Tragedy of Macbeth. The former Harry Potter star can now be seen starring opposite Christian Bale in Netflix's The Pale Blue Eye, a gothic horror film in which he plays a young version of Edgar Allen Poe. Despite his appreciation for the Harry Potter franchise, Melling is clearly interested in continuing to blaze new ground in a variety of creative endeavors.
Source: Vanity Fair
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