Gilderoy Lockhart is not new territory for Kit Harington. He voiced the character in Audible’s full-cast recording of the Harry Potter books, released barely a year ago — no set, no screen test, just the performance on tape. HBO has now handed him the part all over again.
Handing an actor a second crack at the same character, with the muscle memory still warm, is an unusual move.
The one cast member who isn’t starting from zero
Almost every role in HBO’s Harry Potter series is going to a fresh face stepping into territory the films already mapped out. Harington is the outlier — the rare member of this ensemble who has already lived inside his character, and he isn’t remotely coy about how badly he wants it.
“I’m a huge Potter fan. I’ve got to be honest, he’s one of my favourite characters, so, to be offered to play him is a real dream. I’ve had a taste of him [in the audiobook] and felt my way around him. He’s just a wonderful creation,” Harington said in a recent interview following the announcement.
Look closely at what that describes. It isn’t preparation. It’s reacquaintance.
Kenneth Branagh set the bar, and it’s a strange one
Across the original films, adapted for cinemas between 2001 and 2011, Lockhart was Kenneth Branagh’s. Casting an actor and filmmaker of that standing as one of the Wizarding World’s best-known characters looked right on paper and played right on screen.
Audible then recorded the books with a full cast and gave Lockhart to Harington instead. Which means the actor turning up at HBO with a preloaded take on the role is following Branagh while already having his own interpretation on the record.
Eight episodes a year changes what Lockhart can be
Each year at Hogwarts is currently planned as its own season of eight episodes, at least where season 1 is concerned. That is enormous runway for material that once had to be squeezed into a single feature-length window.
Few characters stand to gain more from that arithmetic than Lockhart. A preening fraud only grows funnier — and sadder — the longer you get to watch him work a room.
Nicholas Hoult was announced for the part first
And here’s the wrinkle worth keeping in mind. Nicholas Hoult was announced as the show’s Gilderoy Lockhart before Harington was cast.
Hoult broke through as a child in About a Boy, more than holding his own alongside Hugh Grant. The climb continued from there, with prominent turns in X-Men: First Class, Mad Max: Fury Road and, most recently, Superman.
Acclaim has followed him away from the franchise machine too, headlining Juror #2, The Menu and Nosferatu — the last of which sealed his standing as one of Hollywood’s most talented up-and-coming stars.
What Harington actually brings to a set
Knowing a character is not the same as having a finished performance, and Harington appears to understand that distinction. Feeling his way around Lockhart, as he put it, is a starting point rather than a destination.
What he owns is a baseline: a voice already located, a rhythm already tested, and eight episodes a season in which to build on top of both.
And when a Game of Thrones veteran calls a vain, lying celebrity wizard “a wonderful creation,” you already know how he intends to play him.