Why Harry Potter actor Vincent Crabbe was left out of the movies

When Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) first arrives at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), he soon learns that there are cliques here, just like any other British boarding school. It is remarkable that he met sharp Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton)clearly one of Hogwarts’ rookie bullies. Draco taunted the timid Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), which immediately repulsed Harry. Over the course of the next Harry Potter series, Draco would become worse and worse, going from being a simple bully to becoming a soldier of the evil Lord Voldemort (Raife Fiennes), who fought against the concept of letting “tainted blood” into the wizarding world’s schools.

In most of the Harry Potter films, Draco was joined by a pair of squishy sidekicks named Crabbe and Goyle. The short Crabbe was played by Jamie Waylett, and the tall Goyle by Josh Herdman. Crabbe and Goyle have always given Harry, Ron and Hermione (Emma Watson) minor headaches and served as low-key villains for most of the series. However, Crabbe only appeared in the first six films and was mysteriously absent from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts I and II. Goyle, meanwhile, stayed.

It just so happened that the character was cut due to a real-life incident with actor Jamie Waylett. It seems that in 2009, when the actor was 20 years old, he was stopped by the police after finding a lot of weed in his car. The cops went back to his house to investigate and found him growing his own small weed. Growing marijuana was still very illegal at the time, and Waylett was sentenced to community service. This all followed an incident in 2006 when Waylett was still a teenager when he was accused of using cocaine. These two incidents led to Waylett being cut from the last two Harry Potter films. The weed incident was covered by the London Paper.

It hardly seems fair, but I guess Warner Bros., who distributed the Harry Potter films, wanted to keep the stigma of Waylett’s drug connections out of the public eye. The movies were already more mature, some rated PG-13 and featuring a few murders, but Waylett was perhaps too much of a challenge. Instead of recasting the role of Crabbe, the filmmakers simply scrapped the character. Goyle returned without a countryman.

Waylett’s legal troubles didn’t end there, either. In 2011, the actor was involved in the infamous riots in London that broke out after the police shot dead a man named Mark Duggan. It seems that Waylett took to the streets in protest. He was caught on camera with an unlit Molotov cocktail. He was arrested and convicted in the British courts, a case the BBC covered in 2012. He did not cause material damage, but his involvement was enough to land him in prison. He was sentenced to two years.

Waylett’s acting career consists only of projects about Harry Potter. His only six films were Harry Potter films, and he played Crabbe in two Harry Potter video games. He also appeared on several talk shows … to talk about Harry Potter. It looks like the actor’s legal troubles have hindered his professional screen career, at least for now. In 2023, the Mirror caught up with Waylettand he said he wasn’t looking for any more acting gigs and was happy to be hired for Cameo’s personalized videos. His last film was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Despite being out of the game, he still feels like, he says, “a Slytherin for life.”

The fate of Crabbe, as he appeared in the Harry Potter novels, is less rosy than that of Waylet. In the books, Crabbe, being Draco Malfoy’s minion, also became a dark wizard, learning forbidden killing spells. In one dark scene, Crabbe attempted to use one of said killing spells, but failed, accidentally killing himself. Perhaps ironically, the spell—a fire-based spell—fired so hot that it destroyed one of the Horcruxes, a magical trinket that held a piece of Lord Voldemort’s soul. When the Horcruxes are destroyed, Voldemort dies a little more. Waylett didn’t get a death scene, but Crabbe, according to Potter canon, didn’t have a dignified death.

As for Josh Herdman, who played Goyle, he continued to act, finding plenty of work on British television. He was in eight episodes of Marcella and most recently in two episodes of the Star Wars series Andor. In the movies, Herdman starred in several British productions and played a small role in the 2018 film Robin Hood with Teran Egerton. Meanwhile, Tom Felton starred in London’s West End and had a prolific career in film and television. He’s appeared in close-to-Shakespearean films like Ophelia and light fantasy like The Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting.

Most of the children from the Harry Potter films continue to improve their craft wonderfully and continue to work in interesting productions. Waylett, meanwhile, looks like he might be out.