From stepping into the Wizarding World as the villainous Lucius Malfoy to premiering a genre-defying Western drama at the Berlin International Film Festival, British actor-musician Johnny Flynn is having the most defining year of his acting career.
At the Berlinale, Flynn world-premiered “A Prayer for the Dying,” a Western drama helmed by Dara Van Dusen and also starring John C. Reilly. Set in 1870 Wisconsin and loosely based on Stewart O’Nan’s novel, the Civil War drama is a horror-thriller that explores themes of the supernatural and the spiritual. Flynn stars as Jacob Hansen, a veteran of the American Civil War who becomes a sheriff, undertaker, and pastor when a plague hits the region. Describing the experience of working on A Prayer for the Dying as a “powerful experience,” Flynn lauds director Van Dusen’s unflinching vision and describes the drama as a “film that’s not really a Western.”
Preparing for one of the most scrutinized roles of his career
Flynn’s most recent and possibly most demanding role to date is as the cunning and manipulative Lucius Malfoy in the upcoming HBO series Harry Potter. Though Lucius has a relatively minor role in the first book of the series, Flynn has confirmed that he appears in the first season of the series. Describing the set of the series as a “welcoming environment,” Flynn praises the showrunner and director Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod for their “very collaborative and very careful approach.” Flynn also talked about his reaction to his young co-star Lox Pratt, who plays the role of Draco Malfoy, and joked that he would have to ask his children to tell him what “aura” means after Pratt said that Flynn had plenty of it.
The new series comes at a time when there has been ongoing debate and controversy over Rowling’s views on gender identity. Flynn talked about this and said, “Obviously, there’s quite a lot of stuff around Jo [J.K.] Rowling. I suppose that’s been quite interesting to navigate, the conversations there—but all important conversations to have. The people working on this are really, really great and create a really special atmosphere, [like] Francesca [Gardiner] the showrunner, and Mark Mylod and various directors. There’s such care. I’m basically not in the first book. Lucius is hardly in book one at all, but I’m in the first series. So it’s quite a thing to go do a day and then have a month or so [off] and come back, and everybody’s got these really tight relationships. But it’s such a welcoming environment.”
Instead of dwelling on this, Flynn talked more about the good working conditions that were present during the making of the HBO series and seemed to be looking to focus on that.
Flynn’s schedule looks very full at the moment, and aside from the Berlinale and the new Harry Potter series, he will be appearing in Season 2 of the series MobLand, playing the role of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Idiots opposite Aimee Lou Wood, and continuing to be the lead singer of his band Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit.
From independent films to a global fantasy franchise, Flynn looks to be balancing arthouse credibility and worldwide fanbase devotion at the same time. With A Prayer for the Dying gaining early buzz at the Berlinale and the new Harry Potter series on the horizon, 2026 looks to be the year that Johnny Flynn finally transitions to being a leading man on a worldwide level.
