Rodrick Heffley

Rodrick Heffley
Name	Rodrick Heffley
Gender	Male
Age	16-20
Occupation	Musician High school student
Status	Alive
Actor	Devon Bostick (2010-2012) Charlie Wright (2017) Hunter Dillon (2021-present)
First appearance	Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
Last appearance	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess

“	I forgot everything you just taught us.	”
	— Rodrick playing dumb to get out of doing laundry in the online book

Rodrick Heffley is the semi-aggressive older brother of Greg and Manny Heffley and the drummer and founder and leader of the rock band Löded Diper. He is the oldest brother of the Heffley family. He acts as one of the main antagonists in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series overall, serving as the main antagonist of Rodrick Rules and as the protagonist of Diper Överlöde.

In the first three Diary of a Wimpy Kid films, he is played by Devon Bostick, with the role being passed on to Charlie Wright in the film adaptation of The Long Haul. In the animated Disney+ films, he is voiced by Hunter Dillon.

Background

Birth and Childhood

Rodrick as a baby

Rodrick Heffley was born to Susan and Frank Heffley in Plainview.

When Greg was younger, Rodrick liked to mess with his head and tell lies. The first lie he told Greg was that, if your belly button got untied (as a newborn), your butt would fall off. Greg told his whole preschool class, which caused a big stir. Another lie was that the toilet seat was only used for girls. Greg believed this, until he accidentally left the door unlocked, and Susan found him. Once he told Greg that, if someone wears camouflage, they are invisible to everyone else. That incident got Greg banned from the pool for the rest of the summer, due to him looking at naked women. Sometimes Rodrick's lies even end up costing money. Greg once believed that, if you put money in the ground, it will grow into a money tree. Rodrick took the money, and Greg lost a lot of his birthday money until his mom stepped in to help him.

Teen Years

Rodrick Heffley attended Westmore Middle School and became friends with Drew and Ward and they together created the band Löded Diper. He also wrote an assignment called A Hundred Years Ago; this assignment was the reason Frank started to do his homework for him. He used to be a troublemaker in school and was greatly disliked by some of the teachers there, one such person being Mr. Huff. During this time, Rodrick tried out soccer, but quit because of Mr. Litch.

How Rodrick met Bill.

A summer later, Rodrick and his friends were going camping overnight looking for concert tickets; during that time, they met Bill Walter. Rodrick became friends with him and looked up to him, because in high school he was voted, "Most Likely To Be A Rock Star".

Rodrick attended Crossland High School, but the school has not been mentioned for a while. He either graduated or the school has simply not been mentioned, since the series is on a floating timeline.

Personality

Likewise to Greg, Rodrick is not depicted to own any exceptional talents, and his is only portrayed to be passionate in a few interests, distinctly heavy metal music as it occupies most of his spare time and frequently drafts him away from his schoolwork. Rodrick would much preferably sleep than engage in anything productive, an attribute that is visually prominent throughout the series. He loves to sleep a lot, once sleeping for 36 hours straight, and whenever Frank compels him to wake him up, he always tries to find a way to override it. As an avid fanatic of heavy metal music, Rodrick is the founder and lead drummer of the band Löded Diper. The band's lead singer, Bill, is a 35-year-old unemployed man who still inhabits with his grandmother. This, incorporated with Rodrick's fixation with heavy rock music, makes his parents fear that he will head down a similar path to Bill's in the future due to his laziness.

Rodrick's laziness

Rodrick is extremely lazy and careless, especially when it comes to school, which elucidates where Greg learns it from. He almost never gets a grade above C-, except for his book reports (where Frank does most of the work due to Rodrick's supposed inability to type). Greg believes that Rodrick is lazy and unintelligent in all other areas, but there are indications that show that Rodrick isn't as dumb as everyone perceives likely meaning his unintelligence likely comes from his laziness (aka lack of motivation/or refusal to learn) and possible dyslexia as he has an inability to spell (though he could have refused to learn how to spell). For one, he is able to con people to reward him greater by setting the bar real low that he can end up surprising anyone by doing the most minuscule thing; for example, Frank asking Rodrick to get cleanse of his filthy underwear off the table. Furthermore, he manages to get away with not doing chores and homework by irritating his parents to the point where they oblige to his desires and lies that he has to go to the bathroom to avoid doing the chores. While Rodrick still clearly isn't the smartest in the family academic wise, he is still presented to be a bit bright and is just not applying it in the school department since he would rather get good grades by cheating than actually doing the work much like Greg does at times. In Hard Luck, it is stated that Rodrick's first quarter didn't go well, insinuating that his father might have stopped assisting him.

While Rodrick is a bit bright he still struggles in other realms. For example grammar; in Dog Days when they brought Sweetie, Frank obliged Rodrick to buy a dog bowl however he ended up vitiating it as "Sweaty". Also common sense; In The Long Haul, he thought a safe is a microwave and that bacon comes from pigs in the same way that eggs from chickens.

Even though Rodrick is often lazy, mean, careless, and irresponsible, he is shown to have a softer side at times, as seen where he can occasionally treat Greg nicely and get along with each other. In the most recent books, he tends to be more responsible and treats his family nicely with respect.

Rodrick's somewhat antagonistic role throughout the series is partly stemmed from a case of an unreliable narrator, as Greg has a less-than-ideal relationship with his older brother per their sibling rivalry and thus Greg depicts Rodrick in a highly antagonistic point-of-view. If one looks at Rodrick's behavior in a more neutral point-of-view, it can be seen that while Rodrick still isn't the most well-behaved teenager (as he is still somewhat mean and very lazy), he is not as bad as Greg depicts him to be as the books are in Greg’s perspective. In fact, Rodrick is actually one of the more well-behaved teenagers in the series. While Rodrick pulls pranks and cons his parents, it's mostly harmless (i.e. putting fake vomit on someone's car and getting his parents to reward him greater) and are not outright vandalism like most of the other teenagers pull in the series (i.e. egging and Taping someone's house and harassing little kids on Halloween). In some ways, Rodrick can actually be a better person than Greg and perhaps better than his parents and his youngest brother. In particular, Greg uses and manipulates his friends like Rowley and Chirag (and even people he doesn't know well) often, while Rodrick is never seen doing so with his friends and partakes in normal activities with them (like watching TV and practicing with their band). In the animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, he said he did his best work on the science project when he didn't and lied that he did to Greg after Greg helped him with it so he can pass the class and get a good grade on it.

Appearance

Rodrick customarily sports a white shirt and black jeans, however is shown to change up and don a black tank top with ripped shorts and black shoes whenever he's heading to a concert or performing a show. When Jeff Kinney starts drawing Rodrick he starts off as if he's drawing Greg because he appears very alike to him.

The only facial appearances that make Rodrick stand out is his black thick eyebrows and five short strains of hair.

In the live-action films Rodrick has black hair covering his head and occasionally wears makeup, however in The Long Haul he has long hair as the directors thought it was adequate for a rock band. In the animated films Rodrick is precisely the appearance of the books with little to no change whatsoever.

Trivia

• Given estimates made based off of illustrations of him, Rodrick Heffley is most likely between 5' 6" (167.64 cm) and 5' 8" (172.72 cm) tall. However, this is entirely conjecture, as his height has never been stated definitively within the series.
• Despite picking on his brother in the two films, he treats him nicely in Dog Days.
• He's the only main character to always have eyebrows in the books and CGI animated films.
• His science project and his grades for his SAT exams have never been revealed. In the online version, however, Rodrick got no ribbons for his science project.
• He once slept for 36 hours and didn't notice until he saw that Monday Night Football wasn't on, because it was Tuesday. Ironically, most real people can not do that. He also had a bad habit of falling asleep in the hot tub and once Susan forgot to wake him up, resulting in his skin looking like a prune for two weeks during which his high school did their yearbook photos.
• Although the fans like the second actor but feels sorry for him and knows that he doesn't fit by being the new Rodrick because of the hatred by everyone and the directors.
• His room is located in the basement of the house. In the film, however, it was relocated to the attic as the house the producers used to film all the Heffley household scenes had no basement.
• Most of the characters in the book only show their eyebrows when they are mad. Fitting with his antagonistic behavior, however, he always looks mad due to him having eyebrows all the time.
• It's hinted in the online book that he has never had a legitimate girlfriend since Greg has never seen him with a girl. However, in The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book, it is hinted in a letter that he was associated with a girl named Lyndsey, who seemed to break his heart in some way. This may explain why he acts incredibly rude and immature.
  • Rodrick did have a brief relationship with an unnamed girl that he met at the Isla de Corales resort in the book The Getaway.
• Rodrick is a major antagonist of the three series; book, film, and online version. However, he isn't an antagonist in The Third Wheel, Hard Luck, Big Shot and Diper Överlöde.
  • In The Third Wheel, he is mentioned only a few times and is a background character; he doesn't bother or prank Greg at all (except for flashbacks), the same in Hard Luck. In Big Shot, He only appears on two pages and is mentioned once. In Diper Överlöde, it can be argued that he is a protagonist, due to most of the book being centered around him, Bill, Mackie and maybe Drew
• In the online book, Rodrick drives a pickup truck while the van belongs to Bill Walter, however in the books and films the van belongs to him.
• He is thought to have a like go for pranks. In the Rodrick Rules movie, he takes Greg to a mall and throws fake vomit on cars. This ends with the boys being chased through a dumpster and the mall by an angry gym teacher. He is also shown pulling pranks on Greg, other adults and teenagers in many of the books, for example putting fake vomit on cars, shooting spitballs on a man and mentioned to have pranked people with dollar bills underneath the boardwalk.
  • However, the first one with fake vomit on cars in Rodrick Rules book does happen, but Greg isn't involved.
  • It's likely that his social media account could have either been a Myspace, Facebook, or even Twitter account since The Ugly Truth was published in 2010.
• Despite appearing on all the books' first page (which generally has all the books' protagonists) Rodrick is only a major character in Rodrick Rules, The Long Haul, The Getaway, and Diper Överlöde with every other appearance being minor (under 30 pages).
• He is shown to be taken advantage of for the first time in Old School. This is also the first time he doesn't squeeze out of a situation from his dad, Frank.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, he got Sweetie's name is wrong on the water bowl, which he spelled "Sweaty".
• He's usually the main antagonist in Diary of a Wimpy Kid, minor antagonist, and anti-hero in Rodrick Rules and Old School.
• His voice from the CGI animated films sounds female and husky due to the third actor voicing him.
• It remains unknown if he got fired from his job at Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlour after Old School.
• It is assumed that he has minor dyslexia as he has trouble with writing and spelling. He may have narcolepsy too, which would explain his sleeping habits.
• It is said that he doesn't know how to type, which is how he gets Frank to type his essays for him (while also rewriting Rodrick's entire essay from scratch in the process). However, Rodrick has been seen texting without any trouble, which shows that he does know how to type, and he just pretends not to manipulate Frank into doing all of Rodrick's assignments for him.
• He is based on Jeff Kinney's older brother named Scott Kinney.
• He made an appearance in a Happy Meal Commercial created by McDonald's alongside with The Pig, Gammie, and Sweetie.
• It is unknown if he is in college as of Double Down or not, even though his mother has tried to persuade him to apply for numerous ones, where he eventually applied (even though he didn't know) for dog schools.
• In the online version, Greg states that Rodrick has a bee sting allergy.
• Like Greg and Manny, he's also rarely seen smiling (sometimes when pranking).
• It is implied in Hard Luck that he gets his thick eyebrows from his mom’s side of the family, as his maternal aunt Gretchen also has thick, always shown eyebrows.
• Rodrick has one of the biggest fanbases out of all the characters especially for teenagers mostly because of the portrayal by the first actor.
• It is very possible that Rodrick has read Greg's diary as he knows that Greg has a crush on Holly Hills, he tried to steal it in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, and the "of a wimpy kid" on the cover looks similar to his handwriting.
• While not the friendliest person ever, Rodrick has become noticeably less mean and antagonistic over the course of the series (particularly towards Greg).
  • Also, despite Rodrick's antagonistic tendencies (as well as his generally mean-spirited nature), quite a few fans consider him to be the most "normal" of the Heffleys.
• In the first movie script, Rodrick is revealed to be 16 years old.
• Rodrick, Frank, Greg and Jeremy Mitchell are the only people in the series without the interior of their ears shown.
• Charlie Wright's casting as Rodrick was met with several criticisms, which also started with the hashtag #NotmyRodrick. Wright also received hate messages and death threats.
• In response to the hate and threats against Wright, original Rodrick actor Devon Bostick expressed his dismay on the vilification and urged fans to not resort to such acts but instead, to give the new actor and cast a chance, before giving Wright his blessing.
• Rodrick really likes snacks, as said in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules". This is because he was hyped up and got out of sleeping when Susan mentioned snacks.
• There was a error in one of the books where Rodrick eyebrows disappeared, looking like Greg but with 5 hairstrands.
• Rodrick has a doppelganger, Rodrigo who appeared in The Getaway.

Gallery

See Rodrick Heffley/Gallery