Rupert Grint’s Post-Potter Plot Twist: Masterstroke or Misstep?

When Harry Potter wrapped, everyone assumed Rupert Grint would keep sprinting down the blockbuster path with Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. Instead, he quietly peeled off, dodged the billion-dollar spotlight, and built this slow-burn, oddly fascinating career that makes a lot more sense the longer you watch it.

The deliberate fade-out: 2012 to 2015

Right after Potter, Grint went small by choice. In March 2012, he signed on to The Drummer, a Dennis Wilson biopic with Chloe Grace Moretz. He also shot a CBS comedy pilot called Super Clyde. Neither became the next giant franchise, and that was kind of the point.

That summer, he did something very un-Hollywood: on July 25, 2012, he carried the Olympic torch as part of the London 2012 relay and basically said he would remember it forever. In October, he narrated a 25-minute 3D planetarium film called We Are Aliens about the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. Yes, Ron Weasley went full dome show about extraterrestrials. Love that for him.

Then theater grabbed him. In July 2013, he made his stage debut in the second run of Jez Butterworth's dark comedy Mojo, playing Sweets, a hopped-up hood with a knack for menacing punchlines. He walked away with the WhatsOnStage Award for Best London Newcomer. Two months later, in September, he signed on for Enemy of Man, a Macbeth adaptation directed by Vincent Regan. And from August 2014 through January 2015, he hit Broadway in It’s Only a Play at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, playing Frank Finger and marking his official Broadway debut.

The side quests: indies, TV, and the left turns

Grint never chased the loudest option. During the Potter years, he dipped into smaller films like Cherrybomb, Driving Lessons, Wild Target, and Into the White. Post-Potter he kept that rhythm going: Charlie Countryman and CBGB (2013), Postman Pat: The Movie and Underdogs (2014), and Moonwalkers (2015). Most of these barely got distribution, so they were never going to blow up the box office, but that wasn’t really on him.

On TV, he popped up as himself on Tracey Ullman’s Show in 2016, played August 'Gustl' Kubizek in Urban Myths, led the series Snatch and Sick Note from 2017 to 2018, and co-starred in the 2018 miniseries The ABC Murders.

The prestige pivot: 2019 to now

His smartest recalibration came with Apple TV+'s Servant in 2019, where he plays Julian Pearce with this sharp, darkly funny edge. The show earned serious critical attention and let him reintroduce himself to global audiences without the pressure of opening weekend math. Apple renewed it in 2021 for a fourth and final season.

He kept the genre energy going with Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities in 2022 and then returned to theaters in M. Night Shyamalan's Knock at the Cabin in 2023, which turned a profit and reminded people he’s very good in performance-first, genre-driven movies. Most recently, he popped up in 2025 in Ed Sheeran's music video for A Little More.

Fame by choice, not default

Grint has kept his private life, well, private. He only joined Instagram in November 2020 and shattered the platform’s speed record to a million followers in 4 hours and 1 minute. Also: he once said his childhood dream was to be an ice cream man, so he bought an actual ice cream van with Potter money and handed out 99 Flakes to locals. That is not a bit. That is real.

If you are wondering whether stepping off the studio treadmill cost him, sure, he probably left some blockbuster money on the table. Celebrity Net Worth pegs him at around $50 million, which is not exactly a tragic outcome. More importantly, it bought him time to reset.

Why he hit the brakes

By his own account, the Potter schedule was suffocating: shoot all year, promote the rest of it, repeat. He also felt the press constantly stacked his choices against Radcliffe and Watson’s. In a 2023 Bustle interview, he explained that after playing Ron from age 11 to 22, the character and the person started to blur.

'In the movies, we merged into one. By the end of it, I was playing myself. The lines were blurred.'

So he took the break, chose roles on his terms, and avoided becoming the guy who shows up in everything. It may not be the splashiest path, but it has been steady, smart, and very him.

About Ron’s shadow

He’s realistic about what sticks. Asked if he will ever truly get out from under Ron Weasley, he told the BBC he doesn’t mind being linked to the role because of what it means to people and how huge it was for him.

'I don't think I'll ever quite step out of his shadow, but I'm fine with that.'

He also teased that he has a couple of things coming next year. After years of selective moves, that sounds like a well-timed re-entry into the spotlight.

For the stat trackers: how Potter performed

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) - IMDb 7.7/10, RT Tomatometer 80%, RT Audience 82%, Budget $125M, Worldwide $962.5M
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) - IMDb 7.5/10, RT Tomatometer 82%, RT Audience 80%, Budget $100M, Worldwide $876M
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) - IMDb 7.9/10, RT Tomatometer 91%, RT Audience 86%, Budget $130M, Worldwide $784.2M
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - IMDb 7.7/10, RT Tomatometer 88%, RT Audience 74%, Budget $150M, Worldwide $885.9M
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) - IMDb 7.5/10, RT Tomatometer 78%, RT Audience 81%, Budget $150M, Worldwide $937.4M
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) - IMDb 7.6/10, RT Tomatometer 83%, RT Audience 78%, Budget $250M, Worldwide $926M
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010) - IMDb 7.7/10, RT Tomatometer 76%, RT Audience 85%, Budget $125M, Worldwide $943.4M
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) - IMDb 8.1/10, RT Tomatometer 96%, RT Audience 89%, Budget $125M, Worldwide $1.3B

Where to watch

The Harry Potter films are streaming on Max and Peacock.