• By MuggleNet Editorial Staff
• 24 Aug, 2026
• Latest

Kit Harington has been cast as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for Season 2 of HBO’s Harry Potter series, replacing Hoult after scheduling complications forced the Superman actor to leave the production.

The news comes just 13 days after MuggleNet reported Hoult’s casting, making for a remarkably quick change behind the doors of the second-floor Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Hoult’s departure reportedly came down to timing rather than a creative change. His other acting commitments eventually collided with HBO’s production plans for the second season, leaving the studio in need of a new Lockhart. That opened the door for Harington, who already had an unusually relevant audition of sorts under his belt: He had recently voiced the character for Audible’s new full-cast adaptation of Chamber of Secrets.

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Harrington’s casting in the audio books was announced in September 2025, and listeners got to hear his full performance when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was released on December 16.

The casting also brings Harington back into the orbit of another familiar collaborator. Harry Potter executive producer and director Mark Mylod previously directed six episodes of Game of Thrones, including several featuring Harington as Jon Snow. For Harington, the move adds yet another HBO series to a résumé already closely associated with the network. He spent eight seasons as Jon Snow on Game of Thrones and more recently played Sir Henry Muck on Industry.

Lockhart will be one of the most significant new characters introduced in the show’s second season, which will adapt Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The celebrated author arrives at Hogwarts boasting of extraordinary encounters with dangerous magical creatures, only for Harry, Ron and Hermione to gradually discover that his greatest talent has considerably less to do with defeating monsters than convincing everyone that he did.

Kenneth Branagh played Lockhart in the 2002 film adaptation, turning the professor’s vanity, cowardice and relentless appetite for publicity into one of the movie series’ most memorable performances. Harington will now have the chance to build a unique version across HBO’s longer-form adaptation.

Season 2 was officially ordered in May, months before the first season’s premiere. HBO is planning overlapping production schedules, with filming on the Chamber of Secrets season expected to begin this fall. First-season writer Jon Brown has also been elevated to co-showrunner alongside Gardiner as the production prepares to move almost immediately from one book to the next.

Before any of that reaches our screens, however, audiences will meet the series’ first generation of Hogwarts professors and students. Dominic McLaughlin stars as Harry Potter alongside Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, with John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the eight-episode first season, premieres Christmas 2026 on HBO and HBO Max. HBO confirmed the Christmas launch earlier this year.

Photo by Suzi Pratt