For some reason, a meme format that’s developed over the last few years starts with “Wanna feel old?” and then proceeds to, essentially, make you feel old by inviting you to participate in the wonder and horror of the (sometimes fictional) aging process of someone who, in your mind, will always be a child.
It’s unclear why “feeling old” is something anyone would ever want. But it’s likely many of us fee just seeing Rupert Grint, who audiences met as Ron Weasley in the “Harry Potter” franchise when he was just 13, with his six-month-old baby.
Grint joined Instagram on Tuesday to post a photo of his daughter, Wednesday. By the next morning, he had amassed 2.3 million followers.
“Hey Instagram... only 10 year late, but here I am,” he wrote. “Grint on the gram! Here to introduce you all to Wednesday. G. Grint.”
The photo was greeted with comments from several of Grint’s “Harry Potter” co-stars.
“Welcome Weasley, it’s about time,” wrote Tom Felton, who played the villainous Draco Malfoy. “Love to Wednesday.”
James Phelps, who played Grint’s character’s older brother Fred Weasley, simply wrote, “Nougat.”
He also received the prayer hands emoji from a Guy Fieri meme account, because ... why not?
Grint and his girlfriend, Georgia Groome, Wednesday’s mother, have dated on and off since 2011. Last year they were rumoured to be married when she was seen with a gold ring on her left hand, but neither has confirmed nor denied the news.
The name “Wednesday Grint” makes the “Harry Potter” star’s daughter sound like the protagonist of a delightfully whimsical English fable ― one that we all need in 2020.