Every Harry Potter Villain Ranked From Worst To Best
3. Draco Malfoy
The award for the most improved character of the franchise goes to Draco Malfoy.
For the first five films, he's an acceptable and entertaining foil to Harry whilst being a fairly typical bully character. Whilst Tom Felton is clearly having a lot of fun in these earlier films, the three main kids were getting far more challenging character beats to work with. By the fifth film, Malfoy started to feel wasted.
However, in 'The Half Blood Prince', he becomes one of the series' best characters . Tom Felton gives the best performance out of any of the young cast in this sixth film. Malfoy goes from a typical bully, to a desperate, broken, and surprisingly dangerous villain. His rivalry with Harry suddenly feels incredibly real and important, and it culminates in a brief but devastating duel in a bathroom. He even gets very close to killing Dumbledore near the end. His small role in the final two films is also compelling, with him slowly realising he doesn't want to fight for evil, or fight at all for that matter.
He's very entertaining to start with, but becomes genuinely impressive to watch in the later instalments. Well done Tom.