Although it’s not set to debut on the 2025 film schedule, the casting course of for Sunrise on the Reaping is a large occasion happening on this web page of the calendar. Followers of The Starvation Video games have been following quite intently, whereas additionally having their very own dream candidates for key roles on this Haymitch Abernathy-centric prequel.
And whereas the function of President Snow has lastly been forged with an A-lister I’ll all the time present up for, there’s an enormous missed alternative that I have to speak about – as I nonetheless sort of want it occurred.
Ralph Fiennes Provides The Starvation Video games To His ‘Infamous YA Villain’ Trophy Case
I actually can not fault the logic that noticed the powers that be casting Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes as the following iteration of President Coriolanus Snow. What’s loopy is that THR’s announcement of this Starvation Video games information has truly landed on the three yr anniversary of actor Tom Blyth touchdown this very function in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes forged. While commemorating this new transfer, producer Nina Jacobson supplied the next assertion:
We wished to honor Donald Sutherland by having considered one of this technology’s best actors play President Snow 24 years earlier than Katniss Everdeen entered the world. Working with Ralph has been on my bucket checklist since he traumatized me for all times in Schindler’s Listing. It’s genuinely a thrill to welcome him to The Starvation Video games.
Naturally, every time somebody mentions “Ralph Fiennes” and “YA” in the identical sentence, photographs of his portrayal of Harry Potter’s Voldemort come flooding to thoughts. That’s with good cause, too, as the person used these abilities that made him a chilling Nazi officer in Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama on a literary determine that swims in some very comparable circles.
So casting via popular culture trauma is certainly a stable transfer, particularly with this Conclave star. That being stated, I must aspect with the Starvation Video games followers for a second, as Sunrise on the Reaping has misplaced yet one more prime alternative to honor households within the performing arts.
I Nonetheless Marvel How Kiefer Sutherland Would Have Achieved As President Snow
I get that nepotistic casting isn’t all the time the reply, and I have to restate the truth that I nonetheless love Ralph Fiennes as the brand new President Snow. However simply as loyal revolutionaries of Panem flooded TikTok hoping for Cooper Hoffman to succeed his father because the youthful Plutarch Heavensby in Sunrise on the Reaping, I was proper there with them in casting Kiefer Sutherland as a youthful model of his father’s menacing politician.
As soon as once more, the actor that landed the gig will not be a foul selection, particularly with Jesse Plemons taking part in younger Plutarch on this second prequel. However contemplating that Hoffman is one other consummate performer who’s shone brightly in an Alex Garland struggle story, it’s one other risk that’ll stay on in my head.
Even with my fan casting mind warmed up, the explanations for not casting Cooper Hoffman or Kiefer Sutherland are simply as legitimate. Nobody would need both of them to be pressured by residing as much as their father’s legacies; with Hoffman beforehand discussing these pressures in his upcoming Stephen King movie The Lengthy Stroll. It’s an unfair idea, as each males are exemplary performers in their very own proper – which circles proper again to why they have been fan forged within the first place.
I will say, for somebody who’s by no means been an intense fan of The Starvation Video games, Ralph Fiennes’ casting as President Snow sort of evokes me to lastly watch The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. There’s loads of time to both meet up with, or rewatch this landmark YA saga, as The Starvation Video games: Sunrise on the Reaping is ready to daybreak in theaters on November 20, 2026.