Warwick Davis Rankings And Opinions

If you’re a fan of fantasy, sci-fi, or slightly unhinged horror classics, there’s a good chance Warwick Davis has already stolen a scene (or ten) in one of your favorite movies. From noble heroes to murderous leprechauns and quirky professors, his career is a wild tour through modern pop culture. In this guide to Warwick Davis rankings and opinions, we’ll look at how critics, fans, and everyday viewers rate his work and why his legacy keeps growing long after the credits roll.

Who Is Warwick Davis, Really?

Warwick Davis is an English actor whose career kicked off in a galaxy far, far away when he played Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi at just 13 years old. Since then, he’s taken on memorable roles in Willow, the Leprechaun franchise, the Harry Potter films, and multiple Star Wars projects, as well as television series like Life’s Too Short and Tenable.

He’s not just a familiar face; he’s also widely respected in the industry. In 2025, Davis received a prestigious BAFTA Fellowship recognizing his long-running contribution to film and television, cementing his status as one of the most important genre actors of the last four decades.

How Fans And Critics Rank Warwick Davis’s Best Roles

When it comes to Warwick Davis rankings, there isn’t just one “official” list. Instead, we have a mix of fan polls, critic roundups, and rating platforms like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. Put all those together, and some clear favorites rise to the top.

1. Willow Ufgood – Willow (1988)

If you ask movie fans to name their favorite Warwick Davis character, Willow Ufgood is usually at or near the top. In many online discussions and Reddit threads, fans praise the performance as the perfect blend of vulnerability, humor, and courage. He’s the underdog hero who doesn’t start as a warrior but grows into one before our eyes, which makes the role incredibly relatable.

Critic retrospectives and performance roundups regularly place Willow among Davis’s best work, emphasizing how unusual it was at the time to have a fantasy blockbuster built around a little person as the central hero and how much heart he brought to the story.

2. Professor Filius Flitwick & Griphook – Harry Potter Series

Technically this is cheating because it’s two roles, but fans often talk about Davis’s Harry Potter work as a package deal. He played Professor Flitwick in multiple films and later took on the goblin Griphook in the final installments.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the Harry Potter films rank among his highest-rated projects, with later entries like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 scoring in the mid-90s with critics. While Davis isn’t the headline star, his characters are fan favorites the cheerful choir-leading Flitwick and the more morally gray Griphook both show his ability to shift tone without ever breaking the world of the story.

3. Wicket W. Warrick – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Wicket might be small and fuzzy, but his impact is huge. Davis’s physical acting under heavy makeup and costume helped give the Ewoks personality and charm. According to his own accounts, he even modeled Wicket’s head tilts and curious looks after his dog, which explains why the character feels so expressive and alive despite the suit.

On fan-curated lists of Warwick Davis movies, Return of the Jedi almost always lands near the very top, thanks to its status as a franchise classic and the warm nostalgia around the Ewoks.

4. Lubdan – The Leprechaun Franchise

Then there’s the chaotic side of the Warwick Davis opinions spectrum: the Leprechaun movies. Critics might not have given these films glowing reviews, but horror fans on forums and social platforms adore Davis’s over-the-top performance as the wisecracking, gold-obsessed villain.

In ranking roundups that focus specifically on his horror work, Leprechaun often lands high because of how completely he commits to the role. He plays it with theatrical energy mixing slapstick humor with genuine menace and that balance is what turns a low-budget horror series into a cult classic. Modern retrospective pieces even celebrate the “peak cinema” absurdity of moments like a leprechaun bathroom joint-sharing scene in Leprechaun in the Hood.

5. Marvin’s Body – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

In the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Davis plays the physical body of Marvin the Paranoid Android, with Alan Rickman providing the voice. It’s a quiet, precise performance every small movement and posture choice helps sell Marvin’s depressed, slumped energy. While Marvin isn’t always at the top of casual fan rankings, critics tend to love the film’s supporting performances, and Davis’s physical comedy is a big part of why Marvin works.

6. TV And Meta Roles – Life’s Too Short, Tenable, And More

Outside of films, Davis has built a strong television profile. In the mockumentary series Life’s Too Short, he plays an exaggerated version of himself, leaning into ego, career frustration, and awkward encounters for comedy. Critics and TV writers often highlight this role as one of his most daring because he’s willing to poke fun at his own image.

Then there’s his work as a game show host on Tenable, which showcases his easy charm and quick wit. While these projects don’t always show up in formal “best movie” rankings, they shape how audiences perceive him today a mixture of seasoned actor, sharp comedian, and warm on-screen presence.

Why Warwick Davis Ranks So Highly With Fans

When you look at Warwick Davis movies and TV shows as a whole, a few themes explain why he consistently scores well with both critics and general audiences:

• Range across genres: He comfortably moves from epic fantasy to family films, cult horror, and deadpan comedy.
• Full commitment: Whether he’s buried under prosthetics or playing a heightened version of himself, he never phones it in.
• Representation and visibility: As a little person in leading and recurring roles, he’s broken barriers and become a role model for many viewers with dwarfism or other disabilities.
• Longevity: He’s been part of major pop culture franchises across four decades not many actors can say they’ve helped define both Star Wars and Harry Potter.

How Rating Sites View Warwick Davis

To get a more data-driven sense of Warwick Davis rankings, it helps to peek at the major rating platforms:

• Rotten Tomatoes: His highest-rated projects sit in the 90%+ range, including later Harry Potter films and recent Star Wars entries where he appears in supporting roles.
• IMDb lists: Community-made lists of Warwick Davis films tend to rank franchise entries like Return of the Jedi, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi near the top.
• Critic roundups: Editorial pieces from film sites highlight Willow, Life’s Too Short, the Leprechaun films, and his work in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy among his most interesting and influential performances.

Put together, that means Davis rarely carries a film down in the ratings; if anything, he often becomes the standout element even when the project as a whole is divisive.

Balancing Critic Scores And Fan Opinions

One of the most interesting things about Warwick Davis is how different groups rank his work. Critics lean toward technically well-crafted films and strong supporting performances think Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Willow. Fans, especially those in horror and cult-movie communities, also celebrate his more outrageous roles, like the Leprechaun series, that critics initially dismissed but later embraced as campy fun.

This split shows why any honest list of best Warwick Davis roles has to factor in more than just critic scores. If the movie still gets quoted at Halloween parties, featured at midnight screenings, or debated passionately online decades later, that staying power says a lot about the performance behind it.

Warwick Davis’s Evolving Legacy

With the BAFTA Fellowship and renewed attention to his long career, the current wave of Warwick Davis opinions is moving beyond “Hey, it’s that guy from Harry Potter!” toward a fuller appreciation of how much he’s contributed to popular culture.

He’s no longer just a familiar face in beloved franchises; he’s recognized as a pioneer in representation, a versatile character actor, and a performer who consistently elevates every project he’s in even the ones that critics didn’t initially love.

Of Personal Take: What It Feels Like To Rank Warwick Davis

Here’s the honest truth: trying to rank Warwick Davis performances feels a bit like being asked to choose your favorite snack at a movie marathon. Technically you can, but the fun is in how they all fit different moods.

On a rainy afternoon, Willow might come out on top. It’s the comfort-movie version of Warwick Davis hopeful, earnest, and deeply human. You root for Willow not just because the script tells you to, but because Davis plays him as a guy who’s quietly terrified and courageous at the same time. For a lot of viewers, that was the first time they saw a little person as a true fantasy hero, not a background character or punchline, and that sticks with you.

But on a late-night horror binge with friends, ranking shifts. Suddenly Leprechaun climbs the list. It’s messy, it’s campy, and that’s exactly the appeal. Davis leans into the absurdity the rhymes, the kills, the ridiculous one-liners but never looks bored or apologetic. There’s a kind of freedom in watching an actor commit that hard to a role that absolutely knows what it is: chaotic entertainment.

Then there are the quieter joys, like spotting him in a Star Wars cameo or recognizing his eyes behind layers of makeup and prosthetics. Every time he appears in a corner of a galaxy or wizarding world, there’s a little jolt of recognition: “Oh, Warwick’s here it just got better.” That reaction alone might explain why his name shows up again and again in fan rankings and polls.

What’s easy to overlook is how much skill it takes to be that reliable. Davis has spent years acting under heavy costumes, masks, and visual effects. When you strip away the CGI and makeup, you’re left with someone who understands physical comedy, timing, and how to make tiny gestures read clearly on camera. In something like Marvin the Paranoid Android, his slumped shoulders and slow walk tell a whole story before the dialogue even lands.

There’s also the meta layer of his career shows like Life’s Too Short, where he plays a heightened, flawed version of himself. Those projects suggest an actor who’s not only aware of how the industry sees him, but willing to poke fun at it. That kind of self-awareness typically shows up later in an actor’s career, when they’ve already done the iconic roles and are ready to experiment. For Davis, it adds depth to how people talk about him: not just as a “character actor,” but as a sharp, funny storyteller in his own right.

So what’s the “right” ranking? Honestly, it depends on where you met Warwick Davis first. If your entry point was Harry Potter, you might value his warm, quirky teacher energy above all. If you grew up with Return of the Jedi, Wicket will always be number one. And if you discovered him late at night through a stack of horror DVDs, the leprechaun might be your king.

Maybe that’s the best measure of his legacy: no matter which path you took into his filmography, you probably came away with at least one performance you’d fight for in a rankings debate.

Final Thoughts

Warwick Davis’s career resists simple lists. The data favors his work in major franchises; fan polls highlight his wild horror and meta roles; critics underline his range and commitment. Put it all together, and the picture is clear: whether he’s wielding a wand, a lightsaber-adjacent staff, or a pot of cursed gold, Warwick Davis is one of the most consistently entertaining and quietly groundbreaking performers in modern genre cinema.