HBO has filled three of the most story-critical parts in Season 2 of Harry Potter, the run adapted from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Tom Riddle, Ginny Weasley, and Dobby are now in place as the series leaves pre-production for a fall shoot, with Season 1 still headed toward a Christmas premiere. Those roles sit at the center of the diary mystery, the house-elf warnings, and Ginny’s first full year at Hogwarts.
Billy Barratt has been selected to portray Tom Riddle, the teenage form of the Dark Lord who becomes central once Harry returns to school. Lenny Rush will play the house-elf Dobby, and Bonnie Hill will assume the part of Ginny Weasley, replacing Gracie Cochrane, who appears as Ginny in Season 1 but later left the role due to unforeseen circumstances.
Those three actors will join another major Season 2 addition, Kit Harington, who is set to portray Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart arrives at Hogwarts as the flamboyant Defense Against the Dark Arts professor during Harry’s second year, giving the new company a prominent adult figure alongside the younger arrivals.
The creative team has continued its pattern of booking younger performers than the film franchise did, including for the actor who will appear as a manifestation of the Dark Lord’s teenage self in Season 2, which is drawn from Rowling’s second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Barratt is in his high teens, near the novel’s portrait of sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle, a contrast with Christian Coulson, who was twenty-three when he was cast in the second movie.
The series is taking an even younger route with Dobby by casting seventeen-year-old Rush. In the films the house-elf was a CGI figure voiced by Toby Jones, who was in his mid-thirties during the 2002 Chamber of Secrets, and HBO has not said whether the show will keep Dobby as an animated creation, add motion capture, or have Rush perform the part in prosthetics to match his distinct look from the novels.
Season 2 was confirmed in May, giving the production an early green light well before audiences see the first run. Filming is scheduled to begin this fall, ahead of Season 1’s premiere this Christmas, and the series will stream exclusively on HBO Max.
Dominic McLaughlin leads the adaptation as the young Hogwarts wizard at the heart of Harry Potter. Alastair Stout plays Ron Weasley, Harry’s closest friend, and Arabella Stanton portrays Hermione Granger, the fiercely bright student who completes their trio. The core adult company also includes John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid.
The official logline for the television adaptation, which explains how an ordinary boy is pulled into a hidden magical world, reads: “There is nothing special about Harry Potter — or so his Aunt Petunia tells him. But when a mysterious letter of admission to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrives, it opens the door to a hidden world of magic, friendship and adventure. Yet behind Hogwarts’ enchanted walls lie dark secrets. Harry must find the courage to prove himself against the darkest wizard of all.” Those lines introduce both the wonder of Harry’s arrival at school and the darker conflict that grows sharper in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Season 1 is written and executive produced by showrunner Francesca Gardiner, who has steered the opening run from script through production. Mark Mylod serves as an executive producer and directed multiple episodes, while Rowling, Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films, also executive produce the series, which HBO is making in association with Brontë Film and TV and Warner Bros. Television.
Jon Brown, a writer on the first season, has been elevated to co-showrunner for Season 2 and will share that role with Gardiner. The new leadership structure is in place as production moves into Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the newly announced characters enter the story.
Source: Warner Bros/HBO
