Another star player has volunteered as tribute to star in Lionsgate’s Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Peter Dinklage will take his fantasy knowledge from Game of Thrones over to Panem, as Deadline reports he’s been cast in the highly anticipated film—and he’s got the best name in the entire saga.
We’ll take your Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark—who boasted the couple name “Peeniss”—and raise you Casca Highbottom. Gone are the days of Caesar Flickerman, Romulus Threat, and Finnick Odair. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has taken a page out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and brought the word “bottom” into its nomenclature.
But Casca Highbottom isn’t what we’ll be calling Peter Dinklage’s character as we watch The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. No, he has a much more professional title: Dean Highbottom.
In the original prequel novel written by Suzanne Collins, Dean Highbottom is one of the creators of the Hunger Games concept. He develops the idea with the father of President Coriolanus Snow, but in the original blueprints, the cruel sections of the game are only hypotheticals.
“Dean Highbottom is one of the most powerful people in Snow’s life,” director Francis Lawrence said in a statement. “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.”
With Coriolanus under Highbottom’s wing (or rather, his rump), the inevitable tragedies of the Hunger Games are bound to occur. Coriolanus—another name with Shakespearean and derriere influences. What’s the connection between these three topics?
The Gilded Age star Tom Blyth will lead the series as a young Coriolanus Snow, a role that previously belonged to Donald Sutherland. Rachel Zegler, who earned accolades for her breakthrough role as Maria in West Side Story last year, will star as tribute Lucy Gray alongside Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will debut in theaters on November 17, 2023.
