A child’s smile should be the last thing the internet finds a reason to criticize.
After Harry Potter fans relentlessly picked apart the looks of 12-year-old Dominic McLaughlin—who inherited the role of the titular wizard from Daniel Radcliffe for the upcoming TV reboot—viewers claimed his behavior has noticeably changed.
They “literally stripped off the joy of an innocent child. The world is a cursed place,” one commented online.
Dominic McLaughlin, who is playing Harry Potter in the upcoming reboot, has faced months of criticism
Fans compared two photos of Dominic McLaughlin taken nearly a year apart and claimed there was a change in his smile.
One photo showed him attending a special screening of Grow in London, England, on October 5, 2025.
The other was taken in September when he attended the 2026 Abbey Road Music Photography Awards in London.
Several fans pointed out how he looked more grown-up.
Others noticed that he appeared to be smiling with his mouth closed in the more recent picture.
“They talked so much about the boy’s tooth that he learned to smile with his mouth closed at 12 years old. The internet is the true Voldemort,” one said.
Fans noticed Dominic seemingly stopped showing his teeth when smiling
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Another wrote, “I want to personally sort this out with the person who made this kid believe there’s something wrong with her smile.”
“They told him his teeth are scary. Ouch, kid, which part of it is scary?!” one asked. “He has such a beautiful smile too, but now he doesn’t open his mouth anymore so his teeth show, poor thing.”
Some pointed out the pressures of growing up in the public eye, saying this was “the curse that Hollywood brings upon people.”
“The show hasn’t even aired yet, and he’s getting bullied. This is one of the reasons why I didn’t want a Harry Potter reboot,” one said.
The scrutiny over Dominic’s appearance has been going on for months, with viewers fixating on what they described as his unusually perfect, “toothy” smile.
“His teeth are too…perfect? It’s bothering me lol,” one said, while another wrote, “His perfect teeth trip me out.”
“His teeth are so straight. this sounds weird but can an 11 year old have straight af teeth?” one asked.
Some wondered if his teeth were real, saying: “Yeah, I don’t think it’s mean it’s just the teeth. They look like dentures or a flipper, doesn’t look like kid teeth.”
“This kids fake teeth are creepy,” another said.
Dominic said playing the titular wizard was a “dream role” for him
Taking the baton from Daniel Radcliffe, Dominic was cast to play Harry Potter in the upcoming HBO TV series adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s books.
He will share the screen with Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley.
“I was always a huge Harry Potter fan when I was younger,” Dominic told the BBC last year. “And it was like the dream role, of course.”
The Scottish actor said he was “thrilled” to be playing the role.
Daniel Radcliffe urged viewers to stop comparing the new child stars with the original actors from the films
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Daniel Radcliffe has voiced his support for the new generation of Harry Potter stars and urged fans to stop comparing them with the original stars.
Daniel was 11 when he was cast as Harry Potter in the original films, thus knowing all too well the kind of pressures Dominic might be facing.
“I’m sure Dominic is going to be better than me. I learned as I went. I look back on what I did now with a lot more kindness, and I find it less interesting now that I’m older,” he told ScreenRant earlier this year. “But I was very much learning how to do it for a long time on ‘Potter.’”
The Escape from Pretoria actor asked people to “not ask about [him] and Rupert [Grint] all the time” so that the new stars can pave their own way.
“I would like not to be weird spectral phantoms in these children’s lives, and just to let them, like, get on it,” he added. “Because it’s going to be a new thing.”
“He was mass bullied because people said his teeth are too straight for Harry Potter,” one commented online
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