Featured Image Credit: Alamy/HBO
Topics: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones, Film and TV
Daisy Phillipson
Topics: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones, Film and TV
Peter Dinklage is jumping from one set of games to another, as he's set to join The Hunger Games' upcoming prequel.
The 53-year-old actor has enjoyed a successful career on both the big and small screen, but arguably his most famous role has to be that of Tyrion Lannister on the hit HBO show Game of Thrones.
And now he's putting his name to another mega franchise by starring in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is set 64 years before the events of the trilogy.
Speaking exclusively to Deadline, director Francis Lawrence said Dinklage will play Casca Highbottom, the dean of the academy, and will star alongside Tom Blyth as the young Coriolanus Snow.
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“Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life," said 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."
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes focuses on Snow long before he became Panem’s presidential tyrant as he's tasked with the burden of saving his family name - and it appears Dinklage's Dean will play an integral role in Snow's life at this point.
Nathan Kahane, president of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, said: "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 – 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.”
High praise indeed, and it doesn't end there, as franchise producer Nina Jacobson added: "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."
Now as you may have guessed already, the producers are still only in the casting phase of the movie's development and therefore it's going to be quite a wait until we get to see it in cinemas - November 17, 2023, to be precise.
Until then, we'll just have to wait to hear more about the film as and when new details trickle in.
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