Harry Potter Star's Sci-Fi 'Blade Runner' Replacement Officially Dominates Streaming

It turns out there’s life after Hogwarts, although somebody probably should have warned Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) that things don’t necessarily get any less dangerous. Swap the Death Eaters for an authoritarian regime, magic for genetic enhancement, and a wand for some distinctly Iron Man-looking technology, and you’ve got a very different kind of revolution. Throw in a dystopian world that owes more than a little to Blade Runner, and we’re certainly not in Diagon Alley anymore.

Tom Felton (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) stars in Altered, an 87-minute sci-fi action thriller that’s officially becoming a global streaming hit on HBO Max. The movie has climbed to No. 6 on the platform’s worldwide chart, sitting alongside much bigger releases including Supergirl, Hamnet, The 5th Wave, and Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

Set in an alternate present where genetic enhancements have become the norm, those who cannot take advantage are pushed into the underground. It's up to a few brave souls to level the playing field for everyone, but every revolution has its cost. It’s basically the sort of world where Tony Stark would probably take one look around and immediately start building something in a cave. With a box of scraps, naturally.

Felton leads the movie as Leon, swapping Draco Malfoy’s robes for something considerably closer to a sci-fi superhero. Elizaveta Bugulova stars as Chloe, alongside Aggy K. Adams (The Witcher), Richard Brake (Barbarian), Igor Jijikine (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), and Liza Bugulova. Timo Vuorensola (Iron Sky) directed the movie, which was released in November 2025 before eventually finding its way onto HBO Max. He certainly knows his way around wild sci-fi, having previously built an entire movie around Nazis hiding on the Moon, so a genetically divided dystopia involving masked revolutionaries and futuristic technology is fairly restrained by comparison.

Is 'Altered' Worth Watching?

Well, you can make up your own mind, but if you did like it, you'd be something of an outlier. Despite its sudden streaming success, Altered was absolutely savaged by critics. The movie currently holds a brutal 10% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences haven’t exactly ridden to its rescue either, with the Popcornmeter sitting at only 12%.

Altered is streaming now on HBO Max.