Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has added yet another impressive name to its cast. Deadline reports that Game of Thrones alumni Peter Dinklage has joined the cast as Casca Highbottom, who is the 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,” director Francis Lawrence said in a statement to Deadline.
Dinklage joins a cast led by Tom Blyth, who will play the young Coriolanus Snow, and Rachel Zegler, who plays tribute Lucy Gray Baird. Also starring in the film are Josh Andrés Rivera, Hunter Schafer, Jerome Lance, Ashley Liao, Knox Gibson, Mackenzie Lansing, Aamer Husain, Nick Benson, Laurel Marsden, Lilly Cooper, Luna Steeples, Hiroki Berrecloth and Jason Schwartzman. Production on the Hunger Games prequel is currently underway, with the film slated to hit theaters next year.
“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,” Nathan Kahane, President of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group told Deadline. “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: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, long before he became the president of Panem, as he becomes the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games approaching, Snow is alarmed to find he’s assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, a young girl from District 12 – the same district Katniss is from in the original series. Like Katniss, Lucy is defiant, but Snow finds a way to turn the odds in their favor as they race to survive and ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.
The film will be released into theaters on Nov. 17th, 2023.
Source: Deadline
