The Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis has been cast in a key role in Lionsgate’s upcoming The Hunger Games prequel.
Viola Davis has been cast as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the Head Gamemaker in the upcoming
Hunger Games prequel movie,
The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes. Davis does an incredibly good line in dramatic grit, creating fearsome adversaries for those that seek to oppose her in movies like
Suicide Squad, Widows and presumably in the upcoming
The Woman King.
Now Davis will be bringing her trademark screen presence to the new
Hunger Games film which Lionsgate hopes will add more to the coffers of a franchise that has already earned almost $3bn at the box office. The prequel, based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling book follows ’18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, who is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girl tribute from impoverished District 12.’
Benediction's Tom Blyth will play Snow, the role played by Donald Sutherland in the original films.
West Side Story's Rachel Zegler will play Baird. Francis Lawrence directs the film which is set for release in November of next year. Davis’ addition to the project certainly adds a prestigious flourish to the film’s cast, although whether the project can jumpstart the
Hunger Games franchise back to life for Lionsgate, we’re curious to see.
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