One of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final performances remains one of his most seen: as the cryptic gamesmaker behind The Hunger Games in the film adaptations of Suzanne Collins’s bestselling YA novels. But ahead of a prequel film partly revolving around the character, director Francis Lawrence has cleared up a bit of confusion about the new movie’s casting process.
When it was announced that Lawrence was developing Sunrise on the Reaping, which takes place 24 years before the events of 2012’s original The Hunger Games, many fans speculated that Plutarch Heavensbee – played by Hoffman in the movies – could be portrayed by his 23-year-old actor son Cooper Hoffman. It was speculation strengthened by the fact that Lawrence and Hoffman worked together on last year’s hit dystopian thriller The Long Walk.
