Peter Dinklage is the latest actor to the join the cast of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The fan-favorite Game of Thrones star has been cast as a character who plays a key role in young Coriolanus Snow's life.
The Hunger Games prequel is currently in production and will be based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. As in the source material, Lionsgate's Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set several decades before the original Hunger Games story with Katniss Everdeen, when Snow is just 18 years old.
Deadline reports that Dinklage is set to join the Hunger Games prequel cast as Casca Highbottom, dean of the Academy. "Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life. 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,” said director Francis Lawrence. As fans already know, Lawrence returns to the director's chair for the franchise after previously helming The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and both parts of the Mockingjay adaptation.
"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. Peter is not just a fan favorite actor who brings a commanding presence to every part he plays,” said Nathan Kahane, President of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group. “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." The Hunger Games franchise producer Nina Jacobson echoed those sentiments, saying, "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."
Dinklage joins a cast that already includes A-list talent such as Rachel Zegler in the role of tribute Lucy Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow. The screenplay for The Hunger Games prequel was penned by Michael Lesslie, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins and a previous draft written by Michael Arndt.
While The Hunger Games franchise has a large fanbase, even some of the most ardent supporters feel the novels deserved better adaptations. Time will tell if the same holds true for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and if it proves to be as successful as the previous Hunger Games films, but fans of the franchise are likely waiting on pins and needles to see how it all unfolds either way.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is scheduled to release in theaters on November 17, 2023.
Source: Deadline