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Viola Davis joins ‘Hunger Games’ prequel cast
By Jami Ganz
New York Daily News
We’re always hungering for more Viola
Davis.
The Oscar winner, 57, is joining the
“Hunger Games” prequel as the villainous
head game-maker Dr. Volumnia Gaul in
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,”
based on the novel by the original trilo-
gy’s scribe, Suzanne Collins, according to
The Hollywood Reporter.
“The ‘Hunger Games’ fi lms have always
been elevated by their exceptional cast-
ing, and we are thrilled to be continuing
that tradition with Viola Davis as Volum-
nia Gaul. Her formidable and powerful
presence will add layers of complexity
Robyn Beck/Getty Images
Viola Davis attends Showtime’s FYC event and premiere for “The First Lady” at the DGA
Theater Complex in Los Angeles on April 14, 2022.
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and menace to this story,” said Nathan
Kahane, Lionsgate motion picture group
president.
“Dr. Gaul is as cruel as she is creative
and as fearsome as she is formidable,”
said director Francis Lawrence, according
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to the outlet.
Lawrence, unrelated to the original
franchise’s star Jennifer Lawrence, is
a staple of the “Hunger Games” cinematic
universe, having directed all but the
fi rst fi lm.
The fi lm will center on the origin of the
original fi lms’ President Coriolanus Snow
(played in those installments by Donald
Sutherland) tyrannical legacy by focus-
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ing on him as a teenager, brought to life
by “Billy the Kid” star Tom Blyth. In the
prequel, Snow has to prepare for the 10th
Hunger Games — a competition until the
death — by mentoring tribute Lucy Gray
Baird (Rachel Zegler) of District 12, from
which the original fi lms’ and books’ hero-
ine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence)
hailed. Through that relationship he
“thinks he might be able to turn the odds
in their favor,” according to the outlet.
Davis — whose resumé boasts an
Oscar, Emmy and two Tony awards — isn’t
the only acclaimed actor to be lending
her talents to the dystopian universe of
Panem in the decades before Katniss
dismantled the sadistic Capitol.
Also starring in the fi lm are Josh An-
dres Rivera, Peter Dinklage and “Eupho-
ria” breakout Hunter Schafer.
In addition to actress Lawrence —
whose 2012 debut in the series occurred
the year after her fi rst Oscar nomination
and the year prior to her fi rst win — the
“Hunger Games” fi lms also starred the
likes of Emmy winner and Oscar nom
Woody Harrelson, Grammy winner Lenny
Kravitz, Oscar winner Julianne Moore,
Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci and the late
Academy Award winner Philip Seymour
Hoff man.
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