Nicholas Hoult Is Going From Lex Luthor in ‘Superman’ to Gilderoy Lockhart in HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

TV + Movies

By https://thoughtcatalog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/max-AsJirOOLN_s-unsplash.jpg?w=48 January Nelson

Updated 2 hours ago, August 13, 2026

Nicholas Hoult is trading one larger-than-life villain for one of the Wizarding World’s most shamelessly self-obsessed celebrities.

Nicholas Hoult arrives at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026, wearing a black Prada tuxedo with a pink pocket square. Photo by Dia Dipasupil / FilmMagic via Getty Images.

Hoult has been cast as Gilderoy Lockhart in the second season of HBO’s Harry Potter series, taking over the role previously played by Kenneth Branagh in the 2002 film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. HBO officially announced the casting this week.

Lockhart is the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts professor introduced in Chamber of Secrets—and unlike many of the franchise’s more intimidating villains, his greatest skill is his own ego. The famously vain wizard has built a celebrity career around his supposed heroic exploits, plastering his face across his books and basking in the adoration of his fans. The problem is that his impressive stories aren’t quite what they seem.

Lockhart flashes a characteristic grin beside a skeleton prop in ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,’ dressed in a gold brocade waistcoat and period overcoat.

Hoult’s casting also creates a particularly amusing bit of franchise whiplash. The actor is currently known to superhero audiences as Lex Luthor, the brilliant and obsessive Superman villain he played in James Gunn’s Superman. He is set to reprise the role in the upcoming Man of Tomorrow.

Now, instead of scheming against the Man of Steel, Hoult will be stepping into Hogwarts as a wizard whose greatest enemy is apparently anyone who fails to admire him.

Hoult as Lex Luther in Superman (2025).

Branagh originated the role of Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, bringing the character’s combination of charm, vanity and spectacular incompetence to the big screen. Hoult will now get his own opportunity to put a spin on the character when the HBO series reaches the second book.

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And there’s an extra bit of Potter history attached to Hoult’s casting: he actually auditioned for the original Harry Potter movies. Hoult has recalled auditioning for Harry himself as a child, making multiple callbacks before the role ultimately went to Daniel Radcliffe. He also auditioned for Draco Malfoy but didn’t get that part either.

Hoult starred with Hugh Grant in 2002’s About a Boy. This is around the time he auditioned for Harry Potter.

Nearly 25 years later, Hoult is finally getting his chance to enter the Wizarding World—not as Harry Potter, but as one of Hogwarts’ most ridiculous professors.

Nicholas Hoult at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, held at LACMA in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026. Photo by Jean Baptiste Lacroix / AFP via Getty Images.

The first season of HBO’s Harry Potter series is scheduled to premiere on HBO and HBO Max on December 25, 2026, with the second season set to adapt Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Season 2 is expected to begin filming in fall 2026, though HBO has not yet announced a premiere date.

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