{"id":603530,"date":"2026-08-24T22:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T22:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603530\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T22:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T22:22:10","slug":"harington-to-replace-hoult-in-harry-potter-tv-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/603530\/","title":{"rendered":"Harington to replace Hoult in Harry Potter TV series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kit Harington is replacing Nicholas Hoult as Gilderoy Lockhart in the second season of the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.<\/p>\n<p>It was announced earlier this month that X-Men actor Hoult, 36, would star as the Hogwarts professor in the HBO adaptation of the children&#8217;s fantasy novels by JK Rowling.<\/p>\n<p>In a post on the Harry Potter Instagram page on Monday, it was announced that Harington would be stepping into the role because of &#8220;a slight change due to schedule&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0022d190-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nNicholas Hoult<\/p>\n<p>The post featured a picture of the 39-year-old British actor with the caption: &#8220;Before we begin year two at Hogwarts, there has been a slight change due to schedule.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Kit Harington will be stepping into the role of Gilderoy Lockhart.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hoult was announced as the original casting of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in an HBO Max post on Instagram on 12 August.<\/p>\n<p>The news came shortly after it was announced that the role of Ginny Weasley would be recast for the show\u2019s second series because of &#8220;unforeseen circumstances&#8221;, and actress Gracie Cochrane was leaving the series.<\/p>\n<p>The show aims to be a faithful adaptation of Rowling\u2019s novels, while providing a wider insight into the magical wizarding world beyond that depicted in the hit film franchise, which ran from 2001 to 2011.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"harry potter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0022e170-614.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The three main characters are young wizards Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, played by Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton.<\/p>\n<p>The cast includes Paapa Essiedu as Professor Severus Snape and US actor John Lithgow as the wise and powerful headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Albus Dumbledore.<\/p>\n<p>Bel Powley plays Petunia Dursley in the series and said she &#8220;strongly disagrees&#8221; with Rowling\u2019s views on gender in a recent interview with the Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance,&#8221; she said at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Rowling has denied being transphobic and previously said she respects &#8220;every trans person\u2019s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She author has said she believes biological sex is immutable and has been critical of self-declared gender identity, calling it &#8220;quasi-religious&#8221; and &#8220;anti-science&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The first season of the HBO show will launch this Christmas, and has been adapted from Rowling\u2019s first novel, Harry Potter And The Philosopher\u2019s Stone.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kit Harington is replacing Nicholas Hoult as Gilderoy Lockhart in the second season of the upcoming Harry Potter&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":["post-603530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}