Harry Potter fans point out how much Dumbledore aged in just 11 years in movies
People are flooding to social media in bewilderment over Dumbledore's sudden ageing from Fantastic Beasts to Harry Potter.
Wizards may be able to whip out their wands and Brackium Emendo (if you know, you know) but apparently when it comes to banishing wrinkles and getting rid of pesky grey hairs there's no such spell.
This is particularly unfortunate for Professor Albus Dumbledore, who seems to have been hit quite hard by the ageing process if you take a look at his progression from Fantastic Beasts to Harry Potter.
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Fantastic Beasts - despite the movie coming out after the Harry Potter franchise - is a prequel to the octet of movies and delves deeper into the life of the Hogwarts headmaster and his journey to becoming the legendary wizard that he is.
However, fans of the headmaster have been left confused by what could have possibly caused Dumbledore to age so drastically - gaining a full-on, impressively grey beard and a fair few wrinkles - between the time in Fantastic Beasts and when he appears in flashback scenes in Harry Potter.
Multiple fans of the films have sprung to social media to question why Dumbledore ages quite so rapidly - after all, surely there's a spell for youthfulness in the wizarding world or what's the point?
Comparing an image of Jude Law portraying Dumbledore as a middle-aged man in Fantastic Beasts to Michael Gambon as the wizard in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one Twitter user wrote: "This is Dumbledore in 1927 and this is Dumbledore in 1938... What happened?!"
TikToker and filmmaker Cory questioned: "This is Dumbledore in 1899 as a teenager - I believe that. This is Dumbledore 28 years later in 1927 and that makes sense, that adds up, that time difference and age degrade and beard.
"So somebody explain to me, how, in less than 20 years does this man age an extra 40 years, like this is 1943."
Thankfully, as well as social media being a pit of despair for fans to air their confusion, others have used the internet to weigh in with their theories to try find a reason behind Dumbledore's rapid ageing.
One Redditer theorised: "I've been bothered by the seeming drastic difference in age between Jude Law's Dumbledore in 1927, and the flashbacks we see of him in The Half Blood Prince which should only take place about 11 years later, and in Chamber of Secrets which should be set in 1943. He seems to have aged 50 years in 15 years, and then hardly ages a day in the next 50. Why?
"(Obviously the actual reason for this is just wanting to use the same actors in the flashbacks and wanting someone younger for Fantastic Beasts.)
"I speculate the reason for the difference in age is perspective. In the films themselves we see Dumbledore as he actually is in those years, but in the two flashbacks we get during the main series one of them is from Tom Riddle's perspective and one is from Dumbledore's perspective himself.
"Tom Riddle was 15/16, young, arrogant, already evil. So so from his perspective, Dumbledore is an old man, much older than he really is.
"In Dumbledore's memory he probably FELT older than he actually was, as he was in the middle of a war with Grindelwald.
"That's what I'm gonna tell myself anyway."
Another Redditor added: "Keep the following in mind that Dumbledore was born in 1881 and we see him in Crimes in 1927... meaning he's 46 when the move occurs.
"In Chamber he's not only 62 but he's also dreading how he's going to have to fight Gellert Grinderwald, someone that he loves, let alone the campaign of terror Grinderwald is responsible for. Sure, by the time we see him at the start of the books (not counting Halloween '81) he's 110 years old but...
"I have the theory that wizards are more closely tied to their emotions due to their magic, which can freak out if they're stressed or angry. Albus' sister accidentally killed her mother when she had an episode and caused an explosion, Harry shattered a glass and blew up his aunt..."
As someone who's recently been sprouting many a grey hair on their head at the mere age of 22 I sympathise with the Hogwarts' headmaster. Maybe, Dumbledore just wanted to embrace the grey, okay?
Topics: Harry Potter, Film and TV, Entertainment, TikTok, Social Media
Poppy Bilderbeck