What’s the consensus on the state of Nicholas Hoult’s career these days? He’s 36 years old, four years younger than Robert Pattinson. I’ve often felt like Hoult and Pattinson were on sort of parallel tracks – attractive Englishmen who became famous relatively young, and guys with a more offbeat sensibility. While Hoult seemed like more of an “artiste” than Pattinson in their earlier days, I kind of think Pattinson has eclipsed Hoult, who seems stuck in a weird rut of villains and barely-seen projects. Well, this news is not a good sign for Hoult’s career at any level. He’s taken a job in HBO’s Harry Potter series. The same series which is produced by noted transphobe JK Rowling.
Nicholas Hoult (Superman, The Great) has joined the series as Professor Gilderoy Lokckhart, who comes to Hogwarts in Harry’s (Dominic McLaughlin) second year as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Lockhart is a key character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second book in J.K. Rowling’s series and the source material for season two of the show.
The character is renowned in the wizarding world for his many heroic deeds, though he’s later revealed as a fraud who took credit for the acts of others after erasing part of their memories. Kenneth Branagh previously played Lockhart in the 2002 Chamber of Secrets film.
HBO gave an early season two renewal to Harry Potter in May. The show’s first season, officially titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is set to premiere Dec. 25. Along with McLaughlin, the show’s core cast includes Arabella Stanton (Hermione Granger), Alastair Stout (Ron Weasley), John Lithgow (Albus Dumbledore), Janet McTeer (Minerva McGonagall), Paapa Essiedu (Severus Snape), Nick Frost (Rubeus Hagrid), Rory Wilmot (Neville Longbottom) and Lox Pratt (Draco Malfoy).
Francesca Gardiner is the showrunner for season one and executive produces with Mark Mylod (who also directs multiple episodes); Rowling, Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV; and David Heyman of Heyday Films, who produced the eight Harry Potter movies. Jon Brown (Succession) is co-showrunner with Gardiner on season two.
Why is he doing this? I’m really asking. Is he just not being offered anything good these days? He has two kids, and I guess it’s possible he wants to do something that they can watch. But why put your good-guy reputation at risk to work with JK Rowling at this point? This feels like a recession indicator too – like, the industry is going through so much economic turmoil that Nicholas Hoult has to take a job on the Harry Potter series.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
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- Nicholas Hoult at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (98th Annual Academy Awards) Hosted By Mark Guiducci held at the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 5905 Wilshire Blvd on March 15, 2026 in Museum Row, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1083468704, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Nicholas Hoult , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Nicholas Hoult attends “Superman” Fan Event at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England. UK. Wednesday 2nd July 2025.,Image: 1017887609, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Superman – Fan Event, Credit line: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
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- Nicholas Hoult attends “Superman” Fan Event at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, England. UK. Wednesday 2nd July 2025.,Image: 1017887625, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: Superman – Fan Event, Credit line: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon
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- Nicholas Hoult at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (98th Annual Academy Awards) Hosted By Mark Guiducci held at the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 5905 Wilshire Blvd on March 15, 2026 in Museum Row, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1083468743, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Nicholas Hoult , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Nicholas Hoult at the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party (98th Annual Academy Awards) Hosted By Mark Guiducci held at the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) at 5905 Wilshire Blvd on March 15, 2026 in Museum Row, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 1083468755, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Nicholas Hoult , Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Hollywood, CA Guests attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Warner Bros. “Superman” TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. Pictured: Nicholas Hoult BACKGRID USA 7 JULY 2025 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Nicholas Hoult on a press tour for ‘Superman’ Featuring: Nicholas Hoult Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 29 Jun 2025 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
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- Nicholas Hoult on a press tour for ‘Superman’ Featuring: Nicholas Hoult Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 29 Jun 2025 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Welp…he’s no longer on MY watch list
Cannot co-sign anyone joining this project. I just can’t.
It’s entirely possible he’s doing it for the money, and Gilderoy Lockhart is a well-known character that won’t require him to actually commit to 7+ years of shooting.
And as much as we may all wish otherwise, the Harry Potter franchise remains extremely popular, very profitable, and has a ton of name recognition. It pains me to say it, but a lot of people simply don’t care about putting or not putting money into Rowling pockets. I also imagine that unfortunately, people will tweet or like a TikTok about Rowling being reprehensible, and then go on and watch the series anyway. Take the video game- people decried it and Rowling, but it still made a ton of money for the company and did well on twitch streaming.
So, while Hoult may have some flack now, I think that the amount of money this’ll get him will outweigh any damage to his reputation. Especially when only a portion of the population will consider it damaged in the first place :/
I was going to write “because of the paycheck”.
Incredibly disappointing, but I had a quick look at his official insta, and the comments are overwhelming! Maybe he’ll read a few and change his mind?
I don’t think there is much mystery; he’s got young kids and HBO likely offered him a boatload of money for a job close to home.
Oh you mean from a moral standpoint? No mystery there either: he doesn’t care. Oh he will come up with some bulls**t statement about how he doesn’t agree with her views blah blah blah. But as always actions speak louder than words.
I no longer judge actors for the jobs they take. In fact I don’t judge anyone, famous or not, for where they work because often they don’t have a choice. Sure it’s easy to say that Nicholas Hoult is a successful actor and probably doesn’t need the money but I don’t know what his financial status is or what he needs to maintain his lifestyle. I say all this because I work in Trump’s government and believe me, if i had options I’d explore them. JKR is still a horrible person but so was Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis and countless others. I pick my battles and this isn’t one of them.
Yeah, actors have long had the ethos
of you just take the job if they are paying and you like the script. Picking and choosing is for the A-listers Everybody else is hustling.
There’s also the fact that most of the world has no idea of what social media thinks on various issues.
The point is, as you say, if you had options, you’d explore them. Hoult is a highly successful, prolific actor, with enough sponsorship deals and big money jobs that he HAS the option. He is not so frantically in need of either a paycheck or recognition that he needs this job. He chose it.
I had lunch with my brother over the weekend and he was rolling his eyes over one of our cousins still working for the Trump administration (he started in government service during the Obama administration). My response was “he’s got a mortgage and two kids in high school and I can’t afford to bankroll him, so I’m not going to tell him what I think he should do.”
No.
John Lithgow surprised by backlash he’s received for accepting Dumbledore role in Harry Potter series https://share.google/snPiuZOaNQDEk1jmX
This is John’s response and he notes with irony that when he accepted the role he was also playing Roald Dahl in Giant on stage, another famous author of children ‘s books who was very problematic! Is the trouble many authors and other artists are horrible but produced great work?
The trouble is that Rowling continues to publicly, actively put resources into harmful laws. She celebrated the passing of anti-trans bills on Twitter and is threatening to sue Amnesty International into bankruptcy for protecting trans rights. Any money that goes into her pocket is being put towards hateful purposes. There are certainly arguments to be made concerning Dahl, but I don’t believe his estate is funding bills and efforts to wipe people out of existence.
Everything @ET says!
Plus, OMG Lithgow, arguing you star in lots of works by bad people is NOT the flex you think it is!
Everyone in this cast, and everyone who did the new audiobooks, (and HBO for doing the series in the first place) are on my Do Not Watch list.
I’ve been cheering for Nicholas Hoult since he played an awkward pre-teen opposite Hugh Grant in About a Boy, but my goodwill just dried up.
These actors are actively choosing to fund transphobia by working to make Rowling’s projects successful. And don’t tell me there are no other options! It’s possible NH wouldn’t be offered as much money to act in something else, but he certainly is offered other jobs. And wanting as much money as possible, ethics be damned, is a huge part of why we have Trump and the rest of the current GOP in power in the first place, so that whole still-working-in-Trump’s government argument gets circular too.
I have very strong and negative feelings about Rowling, but also warm and nostalgic ones about the characters, world, and stories of Harry Potter. While I was too old to experience them as a fan, I watched the children and even teens around me engage with reading long form, chaptered writing like never before, families reading and discovering together, and legitimately generational experiences of common, societal, joy here in America and in Europe and Asia, where I worked frequently. If I felt and was awed by that as, essentially, an outside observer, I can only imagine what it was like for the generation of children, parents, and teachers who experienced it directly.
So I am not going to judge or single out Hoult here. Or any actor for doing work that is otherwise great, challenging, or interesting to them – and potentially personally meaningful – or simply pays them money or affords them opportunities they may need more than we know, because of problematic origins. Hoult isn’t even the “big name” in this project (John Lithgow is) and he is joined by a bevvy of well known and respected British film, TV, and theatre heavyweights both in front of and behind the camera. And with a diverse cast (see Hermione) and fresh take, he’s part of something that says “Harry Potter doesn’t belong to only one generation, one idea of what the characters must be, or one child’s imagining of what these Brits must look and sound like” and that might appeal to him, too.
In an ideal (but also unfair in every way but pure karmic principle) world, no bad people would ever benefit or profit from the good work they made prior or have any say in what is done with their property once we knew they were terrible and how they were affecting others, but that’s not how creative work, rights, and ownership works. And these arguments don’t cut cleanly. The idea that all things Harry Potter should be memory holed, rejected, forgotten and erased for all people because JK Rowling has become a hateful anti-trans activist in her advancing dotage feels nice but it’s just not workable. Potter can’t be separated from her entirely, but Potter and the inspiration, sense of wonder, community, and joy it brought millions of people, especially children, and the way it encouraged and inspired people to read when reading was on the decline are way bigger than her.
I do believe in strategic boycotting, but I also believe in everyone having the right to do the math for themselves, on each issue and thing, just as they decide within their own hearts and resources where their money and time should go, they can make those same decisions about what and when to withhold. It’s exhausting keeping a list of every objectionable or problematic owner, CEO, spokesperson, employee, political donation, and to boycott them all. I tried for about three years and it was exhausting. Especially trying to keep up with the issues and things that mattered most to me and my family, then the issues that mattered most to people I cared for, and also the issues that mattered on general principle but were not my highest or most urgent priorities.
I recall when there were dueling but equally compelling reasons to boycott Lowes and Home Depot, literally the only hardware stores within a 45 mile radius of me, save a boutique small business where I legitimately could not afford to shop at for my biggest most expensive projects. When I had damage to my home I needed to repair urgently over a few weeks time, my previous strategy of driving 75 minutes every few months to shop at a different chain was less reasonable…and then the owner of my local small business hardware store was busted for indecency. It can do your head in, but I just now make the best decisions I can with the information and resources I have and trust that with the activism and attention of others, we can cover the spread and do what is right.
Wow, this got long. I don’t even feel particularly strongly about this (I am only a passing fan of Hoult and didn’t read the Harry Potter books myself, as I mentioned), but I guess I do feel strongly about not assuming we know others motivations and judging their choices in these ways.
I think the issue is that JKR is profiting off this project and is currently using her money to hurt trans people. She is not some past dead problematic author. This is happening now at a time when trans people are being targeted politically and through legislation. JKR is an active part in that. She put up a photo of her smoking a cigar after a SC ruling that hurt trans people saying it was all going to plan. And listen every person can make their own choice but mine just is not to engage or give money to JKR or the HP world. Obv people can make their own choices around that and actors will. Recession indicators, a slow down of job opportunities maybe for an actor and a British nostalgia for the cultural legend that is HP. Sure, all those things. But it’s still not for me. Not anymore and I’m someone who went to Barnes and Noble at midnight when the books dropped.
I’m definitely side-eyeing him now, though his casting is really good. I actually texted my bff and sisters yesterday about it. I would have loved an HP series back in the day, when we could have explored the world more (like GoT or the LOTR show), but since we live in the worst timeline, JKR has to ruin it with her derangement. Such a shame. I know lots of people have their issues with HP in general, but it was a big part of my life for a very long time, it hurts to think how tainted it’s become because of her.
Jk Rowling was a billionaire before she came out as a transphobe. The series is a foundational part of many people’s childhoods and, undrrstandably, they don’t want to give up important memories. My son loves Harry Potter and gets a lot of grief from his friends for it, even though he very much supports trans rights and trans people.
The irony is that he is vegan. He doesn’t give his friends grief for actively paying for animal abuse and slaughter every single day that they eat meat. But the hypocrisy of complaining about watching a show or reading a book that will put a few pennies in a homophobes pocket VS happily having animals tortured and killed because they like the way they taste is not lost on him.
She literally became a billionaire from the HP series, and movies, and theme parks, and all the spin-offs. It’s way more than a few pennies, and she uses that money to spend millions on anti-trans funding.
I loved the books when I was younger too. Before she was actively trying to harm people.
But that nostalgia doesn’t mean I get a pass to watch new shows, or otherwise continue to put money in her pocket.
Not watching this series in no way impacts the memories of have of enjoying the series, or even the characters of the series itself.
Just as I suspect your son probably ate animal products at some point in his life*, maybe even enjoyed some of them, it seems clear from your comments you wouldn’t think childhood memories of special meals with meat, for instance, would justify continuing to “actively [pay] for animal abuse and slaughter” today.
That’s the same thing many people feel about supporting any Rowling products today: just because we used to/maybe still like her stories, doesn’t mean we have to spend any more money on it or support it today, knowing that she will invest that money into aggressively attacking transpeople.
*I mean, maybe he’s been vegan since birth! My daughter has been vegetarian since birth. But even so, one could apply my point to anyone who chose to become vegan at some point in their life, and get the same meaning.
There is the art and there is the artist. A lot of people can separate the two as we see from Chris Brown, Brad Pitt, JK and many others. That fans do not take a moral stand against the artists behavior. Buying tickets and watching their movies, shows etc….. I mean my God we have an actual convicted felon as a President. But they still voted for him to be in office knowing this.
Harry Potter so many people grew up with the work since the first book in 1997. It’s just in their DNA. I have two elder millennial work friends that are obsessed with Harry Potter still at 40. Maybe that’s their Mickey Mouse.
Its sad JK has taken such a hateful turn in her life. Having more money than her and 10 generations will ever need. That she couldn’t do better as a human and see everyone for who they are. Humans just trying to get through life living their truth and morality. That does not hurt her in one iota of any way possible.
I don’t fault him for taking the job, they are actors a job is a job and HBO pays handsomely. If people don’t agree then don’t watch and tank the ratings. I personally have no interest in watching or supporting her work now.
Actors get less choosey once a wife and kids come along. Nicolas is married and has two kids.
I agree with the comment by John Lithgow, no one cares that he worked on a Dahl play. No one cares if you do an Agatha Christie movie (anti-semite and her books were anti-semitic). People worked with Harvey Weinstein though they knew he was a rapist who ruined careers… Cate Blanchett and Scarlett J. had no backlash for working with Woody Allen.
so, it seems to just be Rowling we are all supposed to avoid somehow… I don’t blame anyone for working with her, turning down a hob won’t impact her at all.
If we feel strongly, we must avoid her work, if you feel more strongly stop watching anything any actor on her show does, any producer, the costume designer, directors, director of photography, on and on.
JK Rowling is actively using her money to target and harass trans women. She’s a bigot and people who watch this show, keep paying money for her BS books and go all in on Harry Potter like it’s their damn identity all need to know you are supporting her and that’s all we need to know. I hope this series crashes and burns.
It’s a lot easier to separate the art from the artist when the artist is dead and can no longer harm people. JK Rowling, on the other hand, is very much alive and actively working to harm a vulnerable population. Putting more money in her pocket is actively promoting that harm.
So while I loved Hoult and his quirky career, sorry. As the mother of a trans daughter – NO.
I loved Ricky Gervais Speech at the golden globes in 2020 about all the Hollywood stars. he criticized their performative acceptance speeches and pointed out that they work for Apple, which runs sweatshops in China. (Dont mention Amazon 😂) If ISIS were to open a film agency tomorrow, everyone would call their agents to secure a job there 😂 he was definitely right.
I wonder how many people who are angry about this have recently ordered something from Amazon, texted on an iPhone, liked an IG story or used an AI platform…
When we know better, we do better, right? Right?