Hoult's Lockhart vs. Branagh's, Graded

David: Welcome back to The Sorting Room. Becca, we've got a big one today. Becca Hartwell: Oh, I know. My phone would not stop buzzing this weekend. David: Deadline confirmed on August 11th, Nicholas Hoult is Gilderoy Lockhart, Season 2. Becca Hartwell: And get this, the guy actually auditioned for Harry and Draco 25 years ago. Lost both. David: Twenty-five years later, he's playing the fraud who steals everyone else's glory. The irony writes itself. Becca Hartwell: Right? So today we're asking, bold swing or the safe pick? David: We're putting Kenneth Branagh's Lockhart against whatever Hoult's about to bring. Becca Hartwell: Deadline's calling it his villain era. I wanna know what that means for this character. David: Plus, we're pulling from the books. There's detention scenes and dueling club stuff the film skipped. Becca Hartwell: And then the backlash. Fans are furious, but not really at Hoult. We'll get into who they're actually mad at. David: And we close out looking ahead. Filming starts on this fall, premieres not till December, and Dobby is still nowhere near. Becca Hartwell: So much to get through. Okay, David, where do we even start with this one? David: With 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 Hartwell: Reads for Draco next. Doesn't get that either. David: And now HBO just handed that same kid Hogwarts' vainest professor. Becca Hartwell: Twenty-five years later. David: Nicholas Hoult, Gilderoy Lockhart. I wanna know why HBO went back to the guy they said no to twice. Becca Hartwell: Deadline 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. David: Right. And Syfy is the one who dug up the audition history. Becca Hartwell: Right. David: He read for both Harry and Draco as a kid, got callbacks on both, lost both. Becca Hartwell: Syfy also pointed out HBO's own casting announcement took a jab at the character, quoting his book, Magical Me, right in the caption. David: Of course they did. Man wrote an autobiography about magic he didn't do. Becca Hartwell: There'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." David: Wait, he was already circling this franchise before the part existed? Becca Hartwell: Not 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? David: Sure does. Okay, but here's my issue. The Internet had its guy for Lockhart. Becca Hartwell: Everyone wanted Kit Harington, loudly. David: And HBO just ignored the entire fan shortlist. Becca Hartwell: Which I actually love. That's the more interesting swing. David: I 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 Hartwell: Harington's a type, though. One note, mostly brooding. Hoult's shown range he's never had to touch. David: We're disagreeing already, aren't we? Becca Hartwell: Probably the whole episode. David: Fine 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 Hartwell: Right. No more waiting around on this one. David: But set the irony audition aside for a second. Is he actually right for the part? Vanity, ego, chaos? Becca Hartwell: Fair question. Branagh set an impossible bar in 2002. David: So 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 Hartwell: Okay, so Branagh, can we just sit with how good he was for a second? David: The teeth alone deserve an Emmy. Becca Hartwell: The teeth, the lavender robes, that whole, "Look how humble I am" bow he does every five minutes. David: And the pixie scene is the whole character in 90 seconds. Becca Hartwell: Right. He unleashes Cornish pixies on a classroom of 12-year-olds and just leaves. David: Hands the chaos to Hermione and Harry and flees upstairs. That's not a joke. That's a thesis statement. Becca Hartwell: Total farce, and it works because he never winks at the audience. He plays the vanity dead straight. David: Which is exactly why I think Hoult is the more interesting bet, not the safer one. Becca Hartwell: Go on. David: Think about his Peter III in The Great. Preening, insecure, genuinely funny, and then something snaps, and he's terrifying. Becca Hartwell: Hmm. That's a fair comparison, though Lockhart usually doesn't get to be scary until the very end. David: That'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 Hartwell: Wait, they actually used that phrase? David: Yeah, and I think it matters because Lockhart's third act is a grown man pointing a wand at children. Becca Hartwell: Branagh never got to play that note. The movie treats his unraveling as a punchline, not a threat. David: Right. And if Hoult brings even a sliver of Luthor's control freak menace to that scene, it lands completely differently. Becca Hartwell: Okay, but here's my hesitation. Hoult's late 30s now. Doesn't that change who Lockhart even is? David: How so? Becca Hartwell: Branagh played him as an aging fraud, coasting on decades of stolen glory. A man past his prime, propped up by lies. David: Hmm, totally. And Hoult reads more like someone still building the con. Becca Hartwell: Exactly. A rising celebrity, not a declining one. Same vanity, different clock. David: Which honestly might be scarier. A guy still hungry has more to protect. Becca Hartwell: Or it undercuts the joke because part of what's funny is watching a has-been get exposed. David: See, that's the actual debate, comic timing versus menace. Branagh basically owns one of those already. Becca Hartwell: He does. I don't think anyone touches his timing. David: But Hoult might own the half of the role the film never had room for. Becca Hartwell: Which conveniently is a two-hour movie problem. David: And Season 2 isn't stuck with two hours. Becca Hartwell: No, 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. David: Which chapter are we talking? Becca Hartwell: Chapter 6. Harry gets detention with Lockhart, and it's not a quick gag. It's a whole night answering fan mail. David: Oh, the fan mail scene. That never made the movie. Becca Hartwell: Not a frame of it, and that's where the meatiness under the smile lives. He's terrified of being forgotten. David: Mm-hmm. Becca Hartwell: So the eight-episode structure actually has room to sit in that discomfort. Right. Then chapter 11, the Dueling Club, barely used on screen. David: And chapter 13, the Valentine's Dwarves. Branagh's film got maybe two lines of that chaos. Becca Hartwell: Singing cupids chasing him through the halls? That's prime material for a season with time to breathe. David: Poor Gilderoy, ambushed by dwarf grams. Becca Hartwell: But what actually interests me is the reveal. David: The unmasking? Becca Hartwell: Deadline'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. David: He didn't just lie about his exploits. He erased the people who actually did them. Becca Hartwell: The 2002 film played it as a punchline, Branagh squawking while Dementors close in. David: Which works comedically, but it treats memory theft like a prank, not a violation. Becca Hartwell: And that's my worry for the adaptation, too. Does it let that land as dark as it should? David: What actually gets me about this casting news is who's writing it. Jack Thorne isn't running this alone. Becca Hartwell: Right. Francesca Gardini and Jon Brown, both off Succession. David: Exactly. That's a room that spent years on men who lie to themselves before they lie to anyone else. Becca Hartwell: Huh, hadn't connected that. David: Kendall Roy, Lockhart, different castles, same disease. Confidence built entirely on other people's work. Becca Hartwell: If they bring that instinct to chapter six, that detention scene could be the best thing in the season. David: Yeah. And it's the kind of choice a two-hour script never gets. Becca Hartwell: No, it really doesn't. David: Though not everyone is excited to see more of him, period. Becca Hartwell: Yeah, that reaction's already loud online, and it's not really about the acting. David: Building on that darker read, the fan reaction landed nowhere near dark. It landed disappointed. Disappointed how? Becca Hartwell: PinkNews 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. David: It's the credit, right? Rowling's still executive producer? Becca Hartwell: Exactly. That's the target. Not Lockhart, not Hoult himself. David: Okay, so this isn't a one-off. I've been tracking the casting statement since March. Becca Hartwell: Same. John Lithgow said he was urged to walk away from this thing entirely. David: And didn't. Becca Hartwell: And didn't. Then Nick Frost went public saying his views don't line up with Rowling's. David: Paapa Essiedu signed a trans solidarity letter. Becca Hartwell: Mm-hmm. Bel Powley told The Telegraph she strongly disagrees with Rowling on gender. David: So every single casting rollout now comes with its own little disclaimer attached. Becca Hartwell: It's a pattern. Announcement, then the statement, like clockwork. David: Here's what I keep coming back to, though. Who actually benefits from the silence? Becca Hartwell: Meaning Hoult saying nothing. David: Right. HBO gets a news cycle either way. Rowling gets her credit either way. Becca Hartwell: So the only person with something to lose by talking is Hoult. David: Which is probably why he hasn't. Becca Hartwell: But he will have to eventually. First junket, first table read photo, someone shoving a mic in his face. David: And whatever he says sets the template for Ginny's casting, for Colin Creevey's replacement, for all of it. Becca Hartwell: No pressure. David: None at all. My money's on a very careful, very rehearsed non-answer. Becca Hartwell: I'd take that bet. Actors have gotten good at saying nothing with a lot of words. David: That's a skill unto itself. Becca Hartwell: So the discourse keeps churning either way. David: Meanwhile, the production doesn't stop for any of it. Becca Hartwell: Which actually is where we should go next. David: Shifting gears, production doesn't care about any of this backlash. Cameras roll this fall. Becca Hartwell: Right, at Leavesden, while Season 1 hasn't even aired yet. David: So Harry's already off to his second year before we've watched him survive the first? Becca Hartwell: Deadline has Season 1 landing December 25th- David: Wow Becca Hartwell: ... and shooting starts this fall, so yeah, overlapping timelines. David: That's a wild release strategy. Binge the origin story while the sequel's already in the can. Becca Hartwell: It also means casting news is going to keep dropping mid-hype for a show nobody's seen yet. David: Which brings up who's still missing from this Chamber of Secrets puzzle. Becca Hartwell: Dobby, for one, and that's a performance capture call, not just a voice booth. David: Big swing either way. Do they go full digital character work or something more grounded? Becca Hartwell: Then there's Ginny. Book two barely uses her, but the show's been expanding characters all season. David: And Lucius. He got one scene with Harry in the bookshop. Does that pay off now? Becca Hartwell: That's the follow-through I actually want to see. David: Mm-hmm. Becca Hartwell: Set up and dropped feels cheap. David: So here's my question for the week. Becca Hartwell: Go. David: Is Hoult the biggest adult swing of the season, or does Dobby end up mattering more? Becca Hartwell: See, I think Hoult's the headline, but Dobby's the actual risk. David: Because a bad Lockhart is embarrassing. A bad Dobby is unwatchable. Becca Hartwell: Exactly. One's a performance choice. The other is a technical bet the whole season rides on. David: Which means the real test of Season 2 isn't even cast yet. Becca Hartwell: Not officially, no. David: So 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 Hartwell: Don't forget the Valentine's Dwarves. David: How could I forget the Dwarves? Becca Hartwell: Branagh gave us farce. Hoult might give us menace. David: Mm-hmm. Becca Hartwell: That's the whole thing with this casting. David: Right. So here's what we want you chewing on this week. Is Lockhart actually the riskiest adult casting of Season 2? Becca Hartwell: Or is the Dobby decision the bigger risk? David: Because if they mess up Dobby, the Internet's gonna have way more to say than it did about Lockhart. Becca Hartwell: Noted. Tell us what you think. David: Follow The Sorting Room wherever you listen, and if you've got a set photo or book detail we missed- Becca Hartwell: Send our way. We're @TheSortingRoom. David: Thanks for hanging out with us. Becca Hartwell: See you next week.