Tom Felton got a raucous welcome as he reprised his role as Draco Malfoy for the first time in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway.
The British actor soaked up rapturous screams and applause for a good 30 seconds before uttering his first line: “I need a favor.” The moment was captured by the Cursed Child‘s official Instagram account.
The post was captioned with, “It’s true then, what they’re saying on the train,” which is a quote from Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when remarking on Potter’s arrival at Hogwarts.
Cursed Child is set 19 years after the action of the book and movie series, with the children of the adult Draco, Harry, Ron, and Hermione now attending Hogwarts.
Felton is the first actor from the movie series to join the cast of the stage play, which opened in London in 2016 and on Broadway in 2018. He is expected to carry out a 19-week engagement.
His casting was announced in June, when Felton said it was an emotional moment. “It’s very, very easy to get emotional,” Felton said. “When they put my blond wig on for the theater production, I just immediately cried. It was just sort of like a blast from the past.”
He continued: “As much as it is reprising an old role for me, it’s very much treading into new, unfamiliar territory. I know him quite well as a kid. I don’t know him that well as an adult.”
