Tom Felton Makes A Solid Case For Playing Hamilton’s King George In New Video

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Tom Felton Makes A Solid Case For Playing Hamilton’s King George In New Video

Hamilton stans and Potterheads may be in for the ultimate crossover: yesterday, the musical's official Twitter account reposted a video of Tom Felton—the Harry Potter franchise's Draco Malfoy—performing one of King George's songs from the show. Lin-Manuel Miranda's rap operetta attracted a huge fandom outside of its Broadway audiences when the original cast album became available for streaming on Spotify. Because the form of the show includes almost the entire story in its songs, listeners who weren't lucky enough to see it on stage could still understand and appreciate the musical retelling of Alexander Hamilton's life story.

Tom Felton began his acting career playing Harry Potter's snobbish adversary Draco Malfoy. Like most of the main cast, he is still often associated with the role despite proving himself in a diverse mix of interesting projects since then. The actor made a TikTok account in July to showcase his musical talents (and fend off quarantine boredom) with guitar covers and original songs. A week ago, Felton started posting videos of himself performing covers of songs from Hamilton written for the character based on King George III—originated by Jonathan Groff on Broadway—under the apt hashtag #hamiltom.

Yesterday, the Hamilton Twitter account reposted the most recent #hamiltom installment prompting an inevitable deluge of comments wondering about a possible casting. In the video, Felton sings part of King George's first solo, "You'll Be Back," and accompanies himself on guitar; fortunately, his vocal talents are up to par. Over the last day, Felton has posted two more videos exploring the Hamilton catalog, both audio posts of Felton rapping different characters' lines from the song "Aaron Burr, Sir."

After a live film recording of the Broadway production was released on July 6 of this year, Miranda admitted that he was reluctant to adapt the piece into a movie for creative reasons. While most studios and streaming platforms would likely jump at the chance to get their hands on a potential Hamilton movie, Miranda's reasoning behind preserving the legacy of his art in the form it was initially intended is undoubtedly justified.

Fans of the musical can hopefully respect Miranda's decision as an artist; however, it's understandable that they might be a little disappointed at the missed opportunity to see the show as a feature film starring their favorite actors. Felton has certainly proven his ability to play an arrogant, upper-crust megalomaniac on screen. Plus, he already has the British accent down: he even nails the Received Pronunciation, also known as the Queen's English, required for the King George role.

This level of commitment in a few social media posts could be a result of quarantine-induced creativity—the posts even include a photoshopped graphic with the cast album edited to read "Hamiltom." Still, they make a solid case for a Felton casting, if not in a movie, then perhaps in one of Hamilton's theatrical productions when they open back up on Broadway, the West End in London, or Sydney, the latter of which is currently casting. On the bright side, Felton has more than enough time to cover the entire Hamilton soundtrack before then.