True, The Old Guard villain has a Harry Potter connection

If you are watching the new Netflix movie ‘The Old Guard’, you might notice that the film’s villain is a familiar face. Don’t worry, we will save you from scratching your head too much, it is none other than Dudley Dursley from the blockbuster franchise Harry Potter. Well, his real name is Harry Melling, who plays the villainous pharma-mogul Steven Merrick in the Charlize Theron starrer movie.

Fans are delighted to recognise the actor, who looked pretty different from his days as Harry Potter’s spoiled cousin. Though his scenes in Harry Potter were slightly lesser, the actor did an excellent job that it was hard to imagine anyone more perfect for the role.

However, Dudley’s character was nearly re-cast for the seventh film in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Unlike the overweight, lazy on-screen character, Melling looked dramatically different at the age of 21 and was nearly unrecognisable. Due to the popularity, Melling was ultimately able to wear a fat suit to reprise his role.

After the Potter films ended in 2011, Melling disappeared from the spotlight for a little while. Aside from the few roles on British TV shows, he stayed largely off-screen, turning instead to the stage where he performed in 12 plays between 2011 and 2017, mostly in the United Kingdom.

Melling returned to the big screen in 2016’s The Lost City of Z, then again in the 2018 quirky Western film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Since then he has been steadily working with a couple of films each year. Right now, he’s got another movie scheduled to debut in 2020- the war thriller The Devil All the Time and is slated to play Malcolm in the Tragedy of Macbeth, Joel Coen’s adaptation of the Shakespeare play.