HBO's Harry Potter Season 2 Casts GoT Star As Gilderoy Lockhart As Nicholas Hoult Drops Out

Nicholas Hoult is officially out of the Harry Potter TV series ... and "Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington is in for its planned second season.

Deadline exclusively reported that Hoult, who was set to play Professor Gilderoy Lockhart — the hapless, fraudulent Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" who's played by Kenneth Branagh in the original film series — dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with other projects. One of them might be "Man of Tomorrow," James Gunn's next Superman movie in which Hoult will reprise his role as Lex Luthor alongside current Man of Steel David Corenswet and "Supergirl" star Milly Alcock. In any case, Hoult's out, and Harington will now play Lockhart instead.

Harington has some experience playing this conceited, totally unqualified professor who steals other people's stories, casts memory charms, and claims their accomplishments for his own. He voiced Lockhart in "Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions," which released in 2025. In a featurette referenced in Deadline, Harington said of the original book series, "I read [Harry Potter], and like so many generations, I was entranced, and then I was a huge fan all through my teenage years."

According to the outlet, the second season of "Harry Potter," which will adapt "Chamber of Secrets," begins production in fall 2026. Though this seems like rote casting news, it's sure to stir up some controversy ... something that has plagued this HBO TV reboot since its inception.

If you're not as terminally online as I am, you might not be totally unaware of the — to put it bluntly — mess surrounding the Harry Potter series coming to HBO. Let's start with the Joanne "J.K." Rowling of it all, because over the past several years, Rowling, who authored the original book series and is an executive producer on the TV show, has expressed a number of bigoted and cruel beliefs and views about the transgender community. (GLAAD has, helpfully, tracked Rowling's comments.) Not only that, but many people who grew up with the Harry Potter books and movies, including members of the LGBTQ+ community, feel betrayed ... and recognize that Rowling's considerable wealth has funded numerous anti-trans crusades in the United Kingdom. 

The project also just feels ... unnecessary, and it's coming to the small screen 15 years after the perfectly solid film franchise concluded. A full season centered upon each Harry Potter book presents problems that are immediately identifiable (in "Goblet of Fire," the fourth book, there's a pretty weird plotline where multiple characters lend their support to the systemic enslavement of house-elves by explaining that said house-elves like being enslaved), but also, every single actor in this new TV show has to follow in the enormous footsteps of their predecessors. Aside from the fact that he has to go up against Alan Rickman's towering performance as secret hero and Potions master Severus Snape, Paapa Essiedu has faced racist backlash for simply taking this job at all, which — and I shouldn't have to say this — is deeply wrong!

Kit Harington may or may not face backlash for taking a role in this fraught production. At the end of the day, though? He's just wrong for the role.

I'm not going to sit here and say Kit Harington isn't an insanely talented and versatile actor. In fact, I made the argument right here at /Film that Harington's turn as Sir Henry Muck on "Industry" is his finest performance to date, which is saying something. Sure, Harington didn't get to show off his fullest range as the tortured secret royal heir Jon Snow on "Game of Thrones," a show where he mostly scowled and mumbled and occasionally wielded a giant sword ... but if you haven't watched "7 Days in Hell," where Harington plays a hilariously stupid tennis pro who spends a week battling Andy Samberg's flamboyant "bad boy" on the court, you might not be familiar with Harington's game, as the kids might say.

Still, Harington is a uniquely weird and, dare I say, bad choice for Gilderoy Lockhart. Between Sir Henry Muck and Charles Poole (his "7 Days in Hell" character), Harington has shown a real talent for playing man-children who might be at least sort of evil, which applies more to Henry than Charles. What Lockhart needs, though, is a sense that he's truly reprehensible, a quality that Hoult has brought to characters like Tyler Ledford in "The Menu" or Peter III in "The Great." Hoult is incredible at infusing his characters with genuine cruelty, which is what Lockhart needs; again, he knows exactly what he's doing when he steals people's memories and pretends to be an accomplished man. 

Yes, Harington may have voiced Lockhart in the audio series, but forgive me when I say I don't see it translating. The Harry Potter TV series premieres on Christmas Day 2026, so we'll have to wait to see if Harington can surprise us.