Exclusive: Timothee Chalamet To Star In The Hunger Games Prequel Movie
Our insider has exclusively shared casting news for the Hunger Games prequel. Will Timothee Chalamet take on the role?
Update November 17, 2023. Timothee Chalamet was not cast in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The leading role went to Tom Blyth who played Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow.
Timothee Chalamet is fast becoming an in-demand star. Early on, he tended toward more indie fare. He grew to some acclaim in Call Me By Your Name, and the Greta Gerwig films Lady Bird and Little Women. While Dune has been struck with pandemic-related delays, he’s expected to gain a lot of attention in his starring role for the major release. Over the last year, we’ve heard about a lot of projects eyeing him for their leading roles, and now, we’ve learned of one that may be too big for him to turn down. Our trusted and proven inside source has discovered that the studio wants Timothee Chalamet for their young President Snow in The Hunger Games prequel movie.
On the part of the studio, Timothee Chalamet is a solid choice for their main character. It completely makes sense that this is who they’d choose to star in their prequel. The movie has some challenges ahead. For one thing, the prequel story is based around the villain for the main series, who isn’t exactly redeemable as a man “not above killing children”. For another thing, the prequel takes place sixty years before The Hunger Games. This means the familiar characters that Hunger Games fans love won’t be seen in the prequel.
While these are heavy challenges for making a great movie, Timothee Chalamet could be an important key to creating more draw for the prequel. His fanbase has grown rather intense in recent years. Even if those fans have reservations about seeing a movie for President Snow, they may be just fine with seeing a Chalamet movie.
If Timothee Chalamet takes on the role, he’ll be playing a younger version of Donald Sutherland. President Snow was known for being terribly menacing. While he may have been less terrifying in his younger years, we know from the novels that he was still a man who poisoned people to get ahead. He’s ambitious, frightening, and even in the prequel story, doing dark deeds. He’s a difficult main character because audiences aren’t going to want to see him succeed.
Our source didn’t disclose whether the studio has talked to Timothee Chalamet about the role yet, only that they want him in the part. While the prequel book was controversial among fans of the series, it’s still expected to be a major release that many will go see. The role will be challenging, both in that he’ll be playing someone who’s considered a villain and because he’ll be a playing younger version of a character we’ve seen played by another actor. However, Chalamet has talked a lot in interviews about his respect for films and for acting challenges, so this may be the kind of challenge he’s looking for in his career.
Timothee Chalamet recently signed on for Wonka, a prequel story for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Will he also agree to this next prequel story? Wonka seems like a questionable story to many. While the character is beloved, and the outfits are neat, the movie is a prequel musical. That may be a tough sell and a tougher movie to make great. For The Hunger Games, we’ve already seen the source material for the prequel in the book series. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is going to be a tough movie to make fans happy with, though a star as likable as Timothee Chalamet may help the situation.
It’s not as though every prequel is a terrible story. Sometimes, prequel stories can be an exciting addition to a universe. However, too often, prequels can be unnecessary, awkward, and difficult to like. In the case of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, fans went into the book wary after learning the premise, but wanting to dive back into a world they spent so much time in previously. Unfortunately, many came away with an important lesson about redemption stories for true villains: you don’t really want to cheer them on. When we meet President Snow during the 74th Hunger Games, where Katniss Everdeen is a contestant, he is definitely a villain. When we meet 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, a young mentor for the games, we’re confused. We should be on the side of the main character for the book, right? But this is President Snow, a guy who was a big fan of a national competition that sacrifices children. He’s not someone you’re going to root for. Even giving him his own book, and even having him played by someone as likable as Timothee Chalamet, he’s still a character we know well as a villain.
The studio definitely has their work cut out for them making this a story that fans of The Hunger Games will enjoy. Casting Timothee Chalamet seems like a very strong first step. We’ll be watching to see whether Chalamet takes on this new challenge and turns it into something fans love.
