Harry Potter's Goyle has come back to our screens and we didn't even realise
He looks unrecognisable...
He looks unrecognisable...
Spotting Harry Potter alumni in other on-screen projects is a favourite pastime for most fans of the series, finding out where our favourite Hogwarts students are now.
Dean Thomas (Alfred Enoch) turned up in How to Get Away with Murder, Pansy Parkinson (Scarlett Byrne) appeared on The Vampire Diaries, and there are more former Harry Potter stars in Game of Thrones than we can count.
Natalia Tena (Nymphadora Tonks) played Osha on Game of Thrones and Filch (David Bradley) of course played Walder Frey on the show - although both characters are now deceased. The most surprising Harry Potter cameos in the HBO series however came from Hermione’s mother (Catelyn Stark on GoT) and Aberforth Dumbledore (or to GoT fans, Mance Rayder) - 10 house points to whoever spotted those.
But it was Josh Herdman’s transformation that surprised us a few years back, going from Draco Malfoy’s teenage right-hand man, Gregory Goyle, to a now 30-year-old mixed martial artist and cage fighter.
It was announced this month however that the former HP star has returned to the big screen, starring in the second series of crime drama, Marcella.
While a return to TV seems like an unexpected move for Josh, his character Eric is a former soldier who happens to cage fight, so in terms of casting, it doesn’t get much better.
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‘There was a lack of (acting) work about. My dad boxes and I had been doing jiu jitsu for five years so I took it [cage fighting] up as a passion project,’ Josh explained to The Evening Standard in 2016 when asked why he got into cage-fighting.
And it looks like Marcella has ignited the acting bug in Josh who is also set to star in upcoming film, Robin Hood, alongside Taron Egerton and Jamie Dornan.
Count us in for that!
Jenny Proudfoot is an award-winning journalist, specialising in lifestyle, culture, entertainment, international development and politics. She has worked at Marie Claire UK for seven years, rising from intern to Features Editor and is now the most published Marie Claire writer of all time. She was made a 30 under 30 award-winner last year and named a rising star in journalism by the Professional Publishers Association.