Harry Potter fans shocked by how much Dumbledore has aged in just 11 years in movies

People are flooding to social media in bewilderment over the sudden ageing of Professor Dumbledore 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 reversing the signs of ageing, there's no such spell. Trust us, we've looked.

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 the Fantastic Beasts franchise to the original Harry Potter film series.

Despite coming out after the Harry Potter franchise, Fantastic Beasts is a prequel to the eight movies that make up the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

In fact, it delves deeper into the life of the Hogwarts headmaster and his journey to becoming the legendary wizard that he is.

However, fans of the Dumbledore have been left confused by what could have possibly caused him 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.

Fans of the films have taken to social media to question just why it happened - after all, surely there's got to be a spell for youthfulness in the wizarding world, or what's the point?

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Comparing an image of Jude Law portraying Dumbledore as a middle-aged man in Fantastic Beasts to Michael Gambon as the older 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, some fans have come forward with their theories for Dumbledore's rapid ageing.

One Redditor suggested: "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.

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"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.)"

They continued: "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."

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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..."

Maybe Dumbledore was just ahead of his time and just wanted to embrace the grey trend, okay?