Ralph Fiennes s The Hunger Games: Sunshine of the Reaping

It’s about to snow in Panem. After months of speculation about his casting, Lionsgate have officially confirmed that Ralph Fiennes is the new Coriolanus Snow for The Hunger Games: Sunshine on the Reaping, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Fiennes, fresh from his awards run in the critically-acclaimed Conclave, will the already swollen cast that includes the films leads – Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird – as well as Oscar Nominee Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, ckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, and Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lili Taylor as Mags, who were announced yesterday.

The leader of Panem has previously been played twice on-screen thus far – both notably by Donald Sutherland in the original four Hunger Games, and by Tom Blyth, who played the younger version of the character in 2023’s A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The version of the character in the new film will be 24 years before the Katniss Everdeen era and 40 years after Blyth’s point in the chronology.

Nina Jacobson, the film’s producer, told Variety:“We wanted to honor Donald Sutherland by having one of this generation’s greatest actors play President Snow 24 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena… Working with Ralph has been on my bucket list since he traumatized me for life in ‘Schindler’s List.’ It’s genuinely a thrill to welcome him to the Hunger Games.”

“We’ve been blessed with very sophisticated actors in our roles. They draw in and attract real acting talent, because her characters are so deep, the ideas are so powerful. It’s a franchise that is still really rooted in incredible character trauma,” she said.

The book by Suzanne Collins, “opens with the young Plutarch Heavensbee in District 12, capturing the reaping of the Tributes there. Published on March 18, the novel revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of “The Hunger Games,” starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.”

Fiennes will next be seen in Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which opens next month is cinemas.

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