You know nothing, Gilderoy Lockhart.
“Game of Thrones” star Kit Harington will step into the shoes of the comical antagonist in the upcoming second season of the live-action “Harry Potter” series, replacing fellow British actor Nicholas Hoult.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that Hoult was tapped to portray the one-time Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Recent development, however, reportedly said that Hoult had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict.
According to Deadline, HBO announced Hoult’s inclusion knowing it had to work around two of the actor’s pre-existing projects.
Because the shooting of Lockhart’s scenes clashed with said projects, Hoult departed the show and the studio reached out to Harington who “was available and excited to take over the role.”
Harington taking on Lockhart almost appears like destiny as he voiced the same character in the “Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions” last year.
Other actors who lent their voice to the star-studded audiobooks were Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Riz Ahmed, Simon Pegg, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Matthew Macfadyen, Shirley Bassey, Mackenzie Crook, Leo Woodall, and Jamie Demetriou. Harington’s “Game of Thrones” co-stars Mark Addy, Iwan Rheon, Indira Varma, and Jessica Henwick also joined that project, as well as Arabella Stanton, who plays Hermione Granger in the upcoming “Harry Potter” show.
Lockhart first appears in the second book, “The Chamber of Secrets,” as a wizard famed for numerous heroic acts that leads to his appointment.
Behind his vanity and arrogance, however, Lockhart’s ineptitude and incompetence is unmasked after it is revealed that he casts memory charms on others to take credit for their achievements.
The character has a brief appearance in the fifth book “The Order of the Phoenix,” but in the films, he only appears in “The Chamber of Secrets,” played by Kenneth Branagh.
This will be Harington’s third project with HBO after “Game of Thrones” and “Industry.” He is also known for “Eternals,” “Pompeii,” “Silent Hill: Revelation,” “Seventh Son,” “Gunpowder,” and two “How To Train Your Dragon” films.
Production on the second season of the “Harry Potter” show with Dominic McLaughlin as the titular character will begin later this year ahead of the series premiere on Christmas Day.