Hoult's Lockhart vs. Branagh's, Graded

DavidWelcome back to The Sorting Room. Becca, we've got a big one today.

Becca HartwellOh, I know. My phone would not stop buzzing this weekend.

DavidDeadline confirmed on August 11th, Nicholas Hoult is Gilderoy Lockhart, Season 2.

Becca HartwellAnd get this, the guy actually auditioned for Harry and Draco 25 years ago. Lost both.

DavidTwenty-five years later, he's playing the fraud who steals everyone else's glory. The irony writes itself.

Becca HartwellRight? So today we're asking, bold swing or the safe pick?

DavidWe're putting Kenneth Branagh's Lockhart against whatever Hoult's about to bring.

Becca HartwellDeadline's calling it his villain era. I wanna know what that means for this character.

DavidPlus, we're pulling from the books. There's detention scenes and dueling club stuff the film skipped.

Becca HartwellAnd then the backlash. Fans are furious, but not really at Hoult. We'll get into who they're actually mad at.

DavidAnd we close out looking ahead. Filming starts on this fall, premieres not till December, and Dobby is still nowhere near.

Becca HartwellSo much to get through. Okay, David, where do we even start with this one?

DavidWith the audition tape nobody thought we'd be talking about again. Picture this. It's 2000, some kid walks into a room and reads for Harry Potter. Doesn't get it.

Becca HartwellReads for Draco next. Doesn't get that either.

DavidAnd now HBO just handed that same kid Hogwarts' vainest professor.

Becca HartwellTwenty-five years later.

DavidNicholas Hoult, Gilderoy Lockhart. I wanna know why HBO went back to the guy they said no to twice.

Becca HartwellDeadline broke this August 11th. Hoult's playing Lockhart in Season 2, the Chamber of Secrets year. Kenneth Branagh's the only person who's ever done it on screen back in 2002.

DavidRight. And Syfy is the one who dug up the audition history.

Becca HartwellRight.

DavidHe read for both Harry and Draco as a kid, got callbacks on both, lost both.

Becca HartwellSyfy also pointed out HBO's own casting announcement took a jab at the character, quoting his book, Magical Me, right in the caption.

DavidOf course they did. Man wrote an autobiography about magic he didn't do.

Becca HartwellThere's a middle chapter too. Back in June 2025 on the Today Show, he joked he was, quote, "A little bit too old to play Harry now."

DavidWait, he was already circling this franchise before the part existed?

Becca HartwellNot this role specifically, but clearly he hadn't let it go. He also talked up working with Mark Mylod on The Menu that year, which reads differently now, doesn't it?

DavidSure does. Okay, but here's my issue. The Internet had its guy for Lockhart.

Becca HartwellEveryone wanted Kit Harington, loudly.

DavidAnd HBO just ignored the entire fan shortlist.

Becca HartwellWhich I actually love. That's the more interesting swing.

DavidI land the opposite way. Give your most vain, ridiculous character to the guy the Internet's already obsessed with, and that's not a swing. That's the safe, famous pick.

Becca HartwellHarington's a type, though. One note, mostly brooding. Hoult's shown range he's never had to touch.

DavidWe're disagreeing already, aren't we?

Becca HartwellProbably the whole episode.

DavidFine by me. And Season 2's shooting this fall ahead of Season 1's Christmas premiere, so this casting call means production's close.

Becca HartwellRight. No more waiting around on this one.

DavidBut set the irony audition aside for a second. Is he actually right for the part? Vanity, ego, chaos?

Becca HartwellFair question. Branagh set an impossible bar in 2002.

DavidSo does Hoult clear it, or does he just remind everyone why Branagh is still the version people quote? Building on that irony, let's compare the performances now.

Becca HartwellOkay, so Branagh, can we just sit with how good he was for a second?

DavidThe teeth alone deserve an Emmy.

Becca HartwellThe teeth, the lavender robes, that whole, "Look how humble I am" bow he does every five minutes.

DavidAnd the pixie scene is the whole character in 90 seconds.

Becca HartwellRight. He unleashes Cornish pixies on a classroom of 12-year-olds and just leaves.

DavidHands the chaos to Hermione and Harry and flees upstairs. That's not a joke. That's a thesis statement.

Becca HartwellTotal farce, and it works because he never winks at the audience. He plays the vanity dead straight.

DavidWhich is exactly why I think Hoult is the more interesting bet, not the safer one.

Becca HartwellGo on.

DavidThink about his Peter III in The Great. Preening, insecure, genuinely funny, and then something snaps, and he's terrifying.

Becca HartwellHmm. That's a fair comparison, though Lockhart usually doesn't get to be scary until the very end.

DavidThat's the point. Deadline's own writeup on this casting called him "still in his villain era," tying it right back to Lex Luthor in Superman.

Becca HartwellWait, they actually used that phrase?

DavidYeah, and I think it matters because Lockhart's third act is a grown man pointing a wand at children.

Becca HartwellBranagh never got to play that note. The movie treats his unraveling as a punchline, not a threat.

DavidRight. And if Hoult brings even a sliver of Luthor's control freak menace to that scene, it lands completely differently.

Becca HartwellOkay, but here's my hesitation. Hoult's late 30s now. Doesn't that change who Lockhart even is?

DavidHow so?

Becca HartwellBranagh played him as an aging fraud, coasting on decades of stolen glory. A man past his prime, propped up by lies.

DavidHmm, totally. And Hoult reads more like someone still building the con.

Becca HartwellExactly. A rising celebrity, not a declining one. Same vanity, different clock.

DavidWhich honestly might be scarier. A guy still hungry has more to protect.

Becca HartwellOr it undercuts the joke because part of what's funny is watching a has-been get exposed.

DavidSee, that's the actual debate, comic timing versus menace. Branagh basically owns one of those already.

Becca HartwellHe does. I don't think anyone touches his timing.

DavidBut Hoult might own the half of the role the film never had room for.

Becca HartwellWhich conveniently is a two-hour movie problem.

DavidAnd Season 2 isn't stuck with two hours.

Becca HartwellNo, it is not. So what did the book give Lockhart that Branagh never got to touch? Shifting gears, the book actually gives Hoult more to work with than Branagh ever got.

DavidWhich chapter are we talking?

Becca HartwellChapter 6. Harry gets detention with Lockhart, and it's not a quick gag. It's a whole night answering fan mail.

DavidOh, the fan mail scene. That never made the movie.

Becca HartwellNot a frame of it, and that's where the meatiness under the smile lives. He's terrified of being forgotten.

DavidMm-hmm.

Becca HartwellSo the eight-episode structure actually has room to sit in that discomfort. Right. Then chapter 11, the Dueling Club, barely used on screen.

DavidAnd chapter 13, the Valentine's Dwarves. Branagh's film got maybe two lines of that chaos.

Becca HartwellSinging cupids chasing him through the halls? That's prime material for a season with time to breathe.

DavidPoor Gilderoy, ambushed by dwarf grams.

Becca HartwellBut what actually interests me is the reveal.

DavidThe unmasking?

Becca HartwellDeadline's own write-up on the casting said he was well-versed in memory charms. That's not a throwaway line. That's the whole crime.

DavidHe didn't just lie about his exploits. He erased the people who actually did them.

Becca HartwellThe 2002 film played it as a punchline, Branagh squawking while Dementors close in.

DavidWhich works comedically, but it treats memory theft like a prank, not a violation.

Becca HartwellAnd that's my worry for the adaptation, too. Does it let that land as dark as it should?

DavidWhat actually gets me about this casting news is who's writing it. Jack Thorne isn't running this alone.

Becca HartwellRight. Francesca Gardini and Jon Brown, both off Succession.

DavidExactly. That's a room that spent years on men who lie to themselves before they lie to anyone else.

Becca HartwellHuh, hadn't connected that.

DavidKendall Roy, Lockhart, different castles, same disease. Confidence built entirely on other people's work.

Becca HartwellIf they bring that instinct to chapter six, that detention scene could be the best thing in the season.

DavidYeah. And it's the kind of choice a two-hour script never gets.

Becca HartwellNo, it really doesn't.

DavidThough not everyone is excited to see more of him, period.

Becca HartwellYeah, that reaction's already loud online, and it's not really about the acting.

DavidBuilding on that darker read, the fan reaction landed nowhere near dark. It landed disappointed. Disappointed how?

Becca HartwellPinkNews ran a piece on August 12th. One fan account that's followed Hoult for years just paused posting, and the objection isn't about his acting.

DavidIt's the credit, right? Rowling's still executive producer?

Becca HartwellExactly. That's the target. Not Lockhart, not Hoult himself.

DavidOkay, so this isn't a one-off. I've been tracking the casting statement since March.

Becca HartwellSame. John Lithgow said he was urged to walk away from this thing entirely.

DavidAnd didn't.

Becca HartwellAnd didn't. Then Nick Frost went public saying his views don't line up with Rowling's.

DavidPaapa Essiedu signed a trans solidarity letter.

Becca HartwellMm-hmm. Bel Powley told The Telegraph she strongly disagrees with Rowling on gender.

DavidSo every single casting rollout now comes with its own little disclaimer attached.

Becca HartwellIt's a pattern. Announcement, then the statement, like clockwork.

DavidHere's what I keep coming back to, though. Who actually benefits from the silence?

Becca HartwellMeaning Hoult saying nothing.

DavidRight. HBO gets a news cycle either way. Rowling gets her credit either way.

Becca HartwellSo the only person with something to lose by talking is Hoult.

DavidWhich is probably why he hasn't.

Becca HartwellBut he will have to eventually. First junket, first table read photo, someone shoving a mic in his face.

DavidAnd whatever he says sets the template for Ginny's casting, for Colin Creevey's replacement, for all of it.

Becca HartwellNo pressure.

DavidNone at all. My money's on a very careful, very rehearsed non-answer.

Becca HartwellI'd take that bet. Actors have gotten good at saying nothing with a lot of words.

DavidThat's a skill unto itself.

Becca HartwellSo the discourse keeps churning either way.

DavidMeanwhile, the production doesn't stop for any of it.

Becca HartwellWhich actually is where we should go next.

DavidShifting gears, production doesn't care about any of this backlash. Cameras roll this fall.

Becca HartwellRight, at Leavesden, while Season 1 hasn't even aired yet.

DavidSo Harry's already off to his second year before we've watched him survive the first?

Becca HartwellDeadline has Season 1 landing December 25th-

DavidWow

Becca Hartwell... and shooting starts this fall, so yeah, overlapping timelines.

DavidThat's a wild release strategy. Binge the origin story while the sequel's already in the can.

Becca HartwellIt also means casting news is going to keep dropping mid-hype for a show nobody's seen yet.

DavidWhich brings up who's still missing from this Chamber of Secrets puzzle.

Becca HartwellDobby, for one, and that's a performance capture call, not just a voice booth.

DavidBig swing either way. Do they go full digital character work or something more grounded?

Becca HartwellThen there's Ginny. Book two barely uses her, but the show's been expanding characters all season.

DavidAnd Lucius. He got one scene with Harry in the bookshop. Does that pay off now?

Becca HartwellThat's the follow-through I actually want to see.

DavidMm-hmm.

Becca HartwellSet up and dropped feels cheap.

DavidSo here's my question for the week.

Becca HartwellGo.

DavidIs Hoult the biggest adult swing of the season, or does Dobby end up mattering more?

Becca HartwellSee, I think Hoult's the headline, but Dobby's the actual risk.

DavidBecause a bad Lockhart is embarrassing. A bad Dobby is unwatchable.

Becca HartwellExactly. One's a performance choice. The other is a technical bet the whole season rides on.

DavidWhich means the real test of Season 2 isn't even cast yet.

Becca HartwellNot officially, no.

DavidSo tell us, Lockhart or Dobby, which casting call actually keeps you up at night? Okay, before we let you go, that detention scene from Chapter Six, still the moment that sold me on Hoult's Lockhart.

Becca HartwellDon't forget the Valentine's Dwarves.

DavidHow could I forget the Dwarves?

Becca HartwellBranagh gave us farce. Hoult might give us menace.

DavidMm-hmm.

Becca HartwellThat's the whole thing with this casting.

DavidRight. So here's what we want you chewing on this week. Is Lockhart actually the riskiest adult casting of Season 2?

Becca HartwellOr is the Dobby decision the bigger risk?

DavidBecause if they mess up Dobby, the Internet's gonna have way more to say than it did about Lockhart.

Becca HartwellNoted. Tell us what you think.

DavidFollow The Sorting Room wherever you listen, and if you've got a set photo or book detail we missed-

Becca HartwellSend our way. We're @TheSortingRoom.

DavidThanks for hanging out with us.

Becca HartwellSee you next week.