Kit Harington has joined HBO's 'Harry Potter' television series as Gilderoy Lockhart for its second season, the network confirmed on Wednesday. The announcement follows Nicholas Hoult's earlier exit from the role.

Harington, best known for playing Jon Snow across eight seasons of 'Game of Thrones', will portray the vain and fraudulent Defence Against the Dark Arts professor introduced in J.K. Rowling's second novel. Filming continues at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, near Watford, where the original films were made.

The casting was reported across entertainment outlets including Variety and Deadline. The series, showrun by Francesca Gardiner with Mark Mylod directing, stars Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, alongside Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout.

The recasting underscores the scale of HBO's decade-long commitment to the franchise, which aims to adapt each of the seven books across successive seasons. The first season is scheduled to premiere in 2027, with Season 2 material already entering pre-production.

An HBO spokesperson said the production was "thrilled" to welcome Harington, describing Lockhart as "one of the most beloved comic characters" in the Potter canon.