I definitely hope that Peter Dinklage enjoys a tipple or two. Otherwise, I’m not particularly certain why the actor, after enjoying Tyrion Lannister, the fan-favorite lush of Westeros, in Game of Thrones would need to play an arguably extra notorious boozehound in one other main style sequence.

That boozehound is particularly Casca Highbottom of The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Dinklage joins this adaptation nobody appears significantly excited for (apart from Lionsgate). This casting information is all properly and good, however, having not learn the prequel earlier than I used to be completely agog on the discovery of how the person created the Hunger Games, during which a bunch of children are drafted to homicide one another till the final one standing manages to carry dwelling additional meals for his or her dwelling district. Casca was simply… drunk. From the fan wiki:

“In his youth, Highbottom attended the University with Crassus Snow, the father of Coriolanus Snow. While studying under Dr. Volumnia Gaul, whom he loathed, Highbottom came close to failing her class. For the class’s final project —which saw him paired up with Snow—the students were challenged to create a punishment for the districts so extreme that they would never be allowed to forget how they had wronged the Capitol. This suited Highbottom, as he had always excelled at puzzles, and in a drunken stupor he conceived what would become the Hunger Games. In the process, Snow got him even drunker, playing on his vanity as he fleshed out the project, all the while assuring him that it was just a private joke. The next morning, Highbottom awoke, horrified to find that Snow had turned in the project to get a good grade. He never forgave Snow for this betrayal.”

I… I truthfully haven’t any phrases at this revelation. In phrases of prequels undercutting the narrative energy of their unique tales, this isn’t on the extent of proclaiming “wizards used to shit where they stood” however it’s… not good. It relegates what needs to be—and is—a horrific celebration of fascism that impressed Katniss Everdeen and others to battle for freedom, and turns it right into a drunken prank gone improper. It’s additionally very silly.

If you’re questioning whether or not Dinklage had had a drink or two earlier than he accepted the function, the movie’s producer, Nina Jacobson, isn’t saying. Instead, she instructed Deadline: “I cannot think of an actor more perfectly suited to inhabit the role of Highbottom. As the man credited with conceiving the Hunger Games and the Dean of the Academy, Casca Highbottom is a character with secrets. Peter’s magnetism, intensity, and dark humor will infuse him with the intelligence, depth, and pathos that the role demands.”

That sounds higher than “drunk man who created an incredibly powerful tool of fascism as a lark” however possibly these “secrets” imply one thing extra is occurring right here? Lord, I hope so.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will lurch into theaters on November 17, 2023.

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