One of the things I hated about the casting of the original Hunger Games movies is the sheer amount of young, unknown actors cast as Tributes. It was like a new batch every other day. Well, with the arrival of prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s happening all over again.
Deadline has casting on the first batch of tributes and mentors in the film, a prequel that centers on a young Coriolanus Snow and his mentorship of impoverished District 12 Tribute Lucy Gray Baird. I’ll just let them have at it here:
Jerome Lance will play Marcus, the tribute from District 2. Ashley Liao will play Clemensia Dovecote, one of Coriolanus’s closest friends and mentor to a tribute from District 11. Knox Gibson will play Bobbin, tribute from District 8; Mackenzie Lansing will play Coral, tribute from District 4; while Aamer Husain will play Felix Ravinstill, the mentor to a tribute from District 11.
As we saw in the earlier films in the $3B-grossing franchise, there are usually a few breakout actors from these roles, such as Amandla Stenberg, Jack Quaid, and Dayo Okeniyi. Interestingly, Knox Gibson is an amputee which suggests his character is, as well. Lansing might be the best known of them all for her performances in HBO’s Mare of Easttown and The Deuce.
They join a cast led by Tom Blyth as Coriolanus, and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird.
Franchise veteran director Francis Lawrence will direct The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes which opens on November 17th 2023.
