Peter Dinklage will play the creator of the Hunger Games in prequel movie

The Hunger Games movies earned over $3 billion at the box office, so it was only a matter of time before Lionsgate gave us a follow-up. Enter The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a new movie about a young Coriolanus Snow, played as an old man by Donald Sutherland in the original films and in the new one by Tom Blyth.

The story is thus: the 10th annual Hunger Games are coming up, and the 18-year-old Snow is assigned to help tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). Snow thinks he got a dud and is frustrated, but sees a way to turn things around after Baird proves popular with the bloodthirsty rabble who watch this teens-fight-to-the-death competition.

Then there’s Casca Highbottom, an academic who is credited with coming up with the idea for the Hunger Games, although he was doing it as a grimly funny lark and never expected it to actually happen. According to Deadline, Highbottom will be played by Peter Dinklage, best known for playing Tyrion Lannister for eight seasons on Game of Thrones.

Peter Dinklage joins the cast of Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

“Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life,” said director Francis Lawrence. “As the austere and vindictive face of the games, he sets the rules that will determine every aspect of Coriolanus’s fate. I’m thrilled that Peter will be bringing him to life.”

Everyone’s on hand to welcome Dinklage to the family. “With production underway, we couldn’t be more excited about the way this cast has come together and thrilled to be welcoming Peter Dinklage to Panem,” said Lionsgate executive Nathan Kahane. “Peter is not just a fan favorite actor who brings a commanding presence to every part he plays. He is one of the best actors alive. He will bring a formidable, charismatic authority to the important role of the dean of the Academy.”

Finally, let’s hear from franchise producer Nina Jacobson: “I cannot think of an actor more perfectly suited to inhabit the role of Highbottom. As the man credited with conceiving the Hunger Games and the Dean of the Academy,  Casca Highbottom is a character with secrets.  Peter’s magnetism, intensity and dark humor will infuse him with the intelligence, depth and pathos that the role demands.”

Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is due out in theaters on November 17, 2023.

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