Austin Butler in The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring (2011)

To be clear, the Lifetime movie and not the Sofia Coppola one starring Emma Watson. Butler had a small role as Zack Garvey, who seems to be an amalgamation of his past and future roles: a transfer student who wants to find friends but also be normal. He winds up caught up in some girls’ dramatic and outlandish adventures. Check, check, check.

Austin Butler in Switched at Birth

Switched at Birth (2011)

Butler played a love interest in this 2011 ABC Family series about teenagers Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) and Daphne Vasquez (Katie Leclerc), who discover that they were switched at birth and raised in very different socioeconomic upbringings. Butler had a supporting role as James “Wilke” Wilkerson III, a friend of Daphne’s biological brother Toby (Lucas Grabeel). The most popular YouTube results for a lot of these teen-drama roles involve clips of a shirtless Butler—a precursor to his current hip gyrations, perhaps?

Austin Butler in The Carrie Diaries

The Carrie Diaries (2013-2014)

Butler entered the heartthrob big leagues in 2013 with the CW’s short-lived Sex and the City prequel, The Carrie Diaries, where he had the tricky challenge of embodying Carrie Bradshaw’s (AnnaSophia Robb) first love when we all knew she was destined to wind up with Mr. Big. As sexy (but sensitive!) transfer student Sebastian Kydd, he set the bar for all of Carrie’s future flings by marrying their sparky chemistry with some actual vulnerability.

Austin Butler in Arrow

Arrow (2014-2015)

In 2014, Butler had a brief stint on the CW’s Arrow as (you guessed it) another love interest: charismatic DJ Chase, who spins intrigue for Thea Queen (Willa Holland). At least in this case, he got to turn the (turn)tables on poor Thea when it was revealed he was secretly working for Ra’s al Ghul!

Austin Butler in The Shannara Chronicles

The Shannara Chronicles (2016-2017)

Butler got his first big starring role in the 2016 fantasy series adapted from Terry Brooks’ Sword of Shannara trilogy; he played Wil Ohmsford, a human/elf healer destined to save the world with the help of the mystical Elfstones and an ancient sword. The role gave Butler more to work with than past parts, between Wil’s discovery that he is the last of the Shannara bloodline of kings and queens, and the far-future world in which magic and demons transform familiar settings like San Francisco.

While the series came to a stumbling end, changing networks and being unable to get a third season greenlit, it still clearly served as a springboard for Butler to jump to the big screen.

Danofgeek