Nicholas Hoult In ‘Harry Potter’ Season 2 As Gilderoy Lockhart

EXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Hoult is still in his villain era. The Superman star has been tapped as a high-profile cast addition to the upcoming second season of HBO‘s Harry Potter series. He will play Gilderoy Lockhart, a major character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, who was portrayed in the second movie by Kenneth Branagh.

Greenlighted in May, Season 2 of Harry Potter is scheduled to begin filming this fall, ahead of the Christmas premiere of Season 1, titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It will air on HBO and be available to stream exclusively on HBO Max.

Dominic McLaughlin stars as the titular Hogwarts wizard. Alastair Stout plays Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley, and Arabella Stanton portrays bookworm Hermione Granger. Key returning cast members also include Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape and Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall.

Hoult’s Gilderoy Lockhart a notoriously vain, boastful and fame-obsessed wizard well versed in Memory Charms who is recruited by Dumbledore as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. A five-time winner of Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award, Lockhart authored many books on dark creatures and his supposed encounters with them.

Season 1 of the series, based on J.K. Rowling’s hugely popular books, is written and executive produced by showrunner Gardiner. Mark Mylod serves as executive producer and directed multiple episodes. Rowling, Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films also executive produce the series, produced by HBO in association with Brontë Film and TV and Warner Bros. Television.

Jon Brown, a writer on the first season, has been elevated to co-showrunner for Season 2 alongside Season 1 showrunner Gardiner.

This marks English actor Hoult’s third major TV series role following the British teen drama Skins and the Hulu comedy The Great, which earned him an Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

Hoult plays Lex Luthor in Superman, a role he is reprising in the upcoming Man Of Tomorrow. Other antagonists he has recently played include Bob Mathews in The Order, Tyler in The Menu and Peter III in The Great. Hoult, who also recently starred in Juror #2 and Nosferatu, will next be seen in Amazon MGM Studios’ How To Rob a Bank, which opens in November. He is repped by 42, UTA and Sloane Offer.