HBO’s Harry Potter show is undergoing major changes with a cast member exiting just weeks after joining season 2 — and their role has already been recast.
Kit Harington, will take on the role of Gilderoy Lockhart in the wake of Nicholas Hoult’s exit, which was originated by Kenneth Branagh in the 2002 Chamber of Secrets film, in season 2. Hoult, 36, left the production due to scheduling conflicts two weeks after his casting was announced.
Before joining HBO’s version, Harington voiced Lockhart in Audible’s Harry Potter audiobooks in 2025.
“It was a really simple yes, because I love the character,” Harington told Variety at the time about his decision to join the project. “As far as cameos in a series go, you don’t get much more entertaining and fun to do as an actor than Gilderoy Lockhart. It was a no-brainer.”
Based on a series of seven books by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter released eight movies from 2001 to 2011 about a young boy who gets introduced to magic as he attends a school dedicated to wizardry. The hit franchise catapulted Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Tom Felton and more of its cast to fame.
HBO is now returning to the fictional world with its upcoming series. According to the official synopsis, the show “will be a faithful adaptation of the beloved Harry Potter book series by author and executive producer J.K. Rowling.”
The series will feature “a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail and much-loved characters Harry Potter fans have loved for over twenty-five years. Each season will bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and cherished films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”
Rowling’s involvement with the project comes after she made headlines for her controversial transphobic comments. Radcliffe, 37, Watson, 36, and Grint, 37, condemned her remarks, which Rowling, 61, has continued to espouse and defend.
Amid the backlash, Rowling did not participate with the cast in the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary reunion special, which premiered on HBO Max in 2022. She was featured, however, in archival footage from 2019.
“I wasn’t [excluded], actually — I was asked to be on that, and I decided I didn’t want to do it,” she said during an August 2022 Virgin Radio interview. “I thought it was about the films more than the books, you know? Quite rightly, as that is what the anniversary was about, so no one said, ‘Don’t come.’”
Rowling also weighed in on fans claiming they would boycott the Harry Potter show because of her involvement.
“Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share,” Rowling wrote via Twitter in April 2023. “Activists in my mentions are trying to organise yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show. As forewarned is forearmed, I’ve taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.”
