Jon Snow spent eight seasons brooding at a wall. This fall, Kit Harington reports to a different castle to play the most gloriously vain fraud in Hogwarts history.
Harington in, Hoult out
HBO’s Harry Potter series has found its Gilderoy Lockhart for Season 2: Kit Harington replaces Nicholas Hoult, who exited over scheduling conflicts, per Deadline’s exclusive. Producers worked around two pre-existing Hoult commitments until Lockhart’s shoot shifted and the deal became unworkable. Harington, the reports noted, was available and excited.
He has played Lockhart before, sort of
The casting is less out of nowhere than it looks. Harington voiced the five-time Witch Weekly Most Charming Smile winner in Audible’s star-studded full-cast audio edition last year, and his reasons then read like a prophecy: “It was a really simple yes, because I love the character… you don’t get much more entertaining and fun to do as an actor than Gilderoy Lockhart.” He added that there is “a little bit of Gilderoy in all of us.” Filipino audiences have already met his narration work too, through his nature documentary project tied to Genshin Impact.
| The Lockhart file | Detail |
|---|---|
| Role | Gilderoy Lockhart, Defence Against the Dark Arts professor |
| Season | Season 2 (Chamber of Secrets), filming this fall |
| Replaces | Nicholas Hoult (scheduling conflicts) |
| Film predecessor | Kenneth Branagh, 2002 |
| Harington’s prior Lockhart | Audible full-cast audio edition, 2025 |
Where the series stands
Season 1, covering Philosopher’s Stone, premieres on Christmas Day on HBO and HBO Max, with Dominic McLaughlin as Harry, Arabella Stanton as Hermione and Alastair Stout as Ron, supported by Nick Frost’s Hagrid, John Lithgow’s Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu’s Snape and Janet McTeer’s McGonagall. The creative bench is growing too: Jon Brown has been promoted to co-showrunner alongside Francesca Gardiner for Season 2.
What it means for Pinoy fans
The Philippines gets the series day-and-date on HBO Max, and the recast is a double shot of nostalgia for viewers raised on both franchises: Harington’s Jon Snow defined a decade of watercooler TV, and HBO’s fantasy bench runs deep, from House of the Dragon’s Targaryen civil war to this return to Hogwarts. The man who knew nothing now plays a man who claims to know everything. Casting does not get more poetic than that.
Production on Season 2 begins this fall. Lockhart’s classroom, presumably, will be insufferable in the best way.
