Although not one of the Golden Trio, Tom Felton is largely known for his work on all eight of the Harry Potter films and is typically considered one of the main cast members, even though he didn’t get as much screen time as some (ahem, me) fans would have liked. Even though he brought his own personal level of snark to all the Harry Potter films and the franchise is internationally renowned and beloved, apparently people still get a little, erm, confused because someone left a funny The Lord of the Rings reference on his dressing room door…except, he totally wasn’t in those movies!
To be fair, it’s kind of easy to get Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings confused if you haven’t been completely obsessed with one or the other or even both for more than half of your life. They both are fantasy based with incredible world building, they both have magic, a bromance to rival all others, and an evil ring that must be destroyed. What they don’t have in common, though, is Tom Felton.
Tom Felton shared a photo of himself in front of his dressing room door on the set of 2:22 - A Ghost Story. The door has his headshot on it, where someone has drawn Harry Potter’s glasses and scar on his face and a speech bubble that says, “You Shall Not Pass!” Check it out for yourself:
While that’s hilarious and everything, the two franchises are two separate things, which fans were happy to point out in the comments on the Instagram post. This isn’t even the first time people have gotten aspects of the two iconic worlds confused. Both franchises contain an old, seemingly all-knowing wizard with long white hair and an equally long beard. I can understand people mixing up Sir Ian McKellen’s Gandalf and Michael Gambon’s (or, for the OG Harry Potter fans, Richard Harris) Dumbledore, but the only thing Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy has a resemblance to in Lord of the Rings world is Legolas’ bleach blonde hair.
Funnily enough, the leads of the two franchises get confused for each other pretty much constantly. So much so that fans were pitting the two against each other and wanted them to fight it out. While that definitely never happened, Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood both pretty much have their reaction to the mix-up locked down to a single word response.
With how much people like to confuse and reference the two franchises together, I’m actually kind of disappointed in how little the two have crossed canonically. I could totally see Tom Felton in a Lord of the Rings spin-off, though maybe not as the aged wizard who actually uttered the “You shall not pass!” line.
Although Tom Felton is still very much into the Harry Potter fandom, he has moved on with his acting career and is getting some interesting roles and recognition for projects that don’t involve his main claim to fame (which is, again, NOT Lord of the Rings!). Right now he’s in the play 2:22 - A Ghost Story that is showing in London, but he did have some new release films this year and has a couple set for 2023.
