The movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, has had a slew of casting announcements lately, not least of which was the news that Tom Blyth (a.k.a. Billy the Kid from the Epix Western series Billy the Kid) would play the young version of Coriolanus (a.k.a. Donald Sutherland’s President Snow in the Hunger Games trilogy).
Today we got news of another member of the cast, none other than Game of Thrones (pictured above) star Peter Dinklage in the influential role of Casca Highbottom.
According to Deadline, Dinklage’s Highbottom is the Dean of the school that young Coriolanus attends. He’s also the guy who came up with the idea for the Hunger Games in the first place, so I’m sure he’s a very nice person who was only a positive influence on the young future President.
“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,” the movie’s director, Francis Lawrence, said in a statement.
“I cannot think of an actor more perfectly suited to inhabit the role of Highbottom,” added the movie’s producer, Nina Jacobson. “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.”
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes premieres in theaters on November 17, 2023.
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