HBO’s massive adaptation of Harry Potter has just drank some Polyjuice Potion ahead of production beginning for the show’s second season. The adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is set to premiere on HBO Max on December 25 but Nicholas Hoult has suddenly changed appearance and now, he’s been replaced by a Game of Thrones legend.
Reports have confirmed that Kit Harington is officially joining the cast of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, replacing Hoult in the role after the Superman star had to bow out due to “scheduling issues”. Harington is no stranger to Potter, or the role of Lockhart in fact, as he previously took on the part in Audible’s incredible seven-part full cast audio drama which released last year, and was utterly wonderful in the role.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
Who Is Gilderoy Lockhart?
Gilderoy Lockhart rocks up to Hogwarts as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor during Harry’s second year. Lockhart is a pompous celebrity wizard whose “daring exploits” have won him a host of admirers throughout the wizarding world, Harry and Ron are of the belief that he is a “pompous git”. Hermione, meanwhile, develops her first crush on her teacher.
However, beneath the charm lies a very different truth. Rather than accomplishing the incredible feats described in his books, Lockhart has built his reputation by stealing the achievements of other witches and wizards before erasing their memories with powerful Memory Charms. The role was memorably played by Kenneth Branagh in the 2002 film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Lockhart makes a further appearance in Order of the Phoenix which was cut from the films, but will now finally make the screen.
The adaptation remains one of the most ambitious television projects ever attempted, with plans to adapt each of J.K. Rowling’s seven novels across seven seasons. The cast includes Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, and Luke Thallon as Professor Quirrell.
HBO’s Harry Potter Season 1 premieres this December, while Gilderoy Lockhart is expected to make his first appearance when Season 2 adapts Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
