Ralph Fiennes Cast as President Snow in “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping”
Ralph Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, is now set to take on another big bad of YA literature–turned-film. Fiennes has been cast as President Coriolanus Snow in the adaptation of the new Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping.
The role was played in the original Hunger Games trilogy-turned-quadrilogy by Canadian actor Donald Sutherland, who sadly died last year at the age of 88.
Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort (Credit: Warner Bros.) and Donald Sutherland as President Snow (Credit: Lionsgate)
The first Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, focused on Coriolanus Snow as an 18-year-old acting as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. He was played in the 2023 film by Tom Blyth.
This second prequel focuses on Haymitch Abernathy, who becomes the victor of the second Quarter Quell (the 50th Hunger Games) and, later, Katniss Everdeen’s mentor in the 74th and 75th Games. By the time of the 50th Games, President Snow is 58 years old, a good match for Fiennes’s current age of 62.
Producer Nina Jacobson said of the casting, “We wanted to honor Donald Sutherland by having one of this generation’s greatest actors play President Snow 24 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena. Working with Ralph has been on my bucket list since he traumatized me for life in Schindler’s List. It’s genuinely a thrill to welcome him to The Hunger Games.”
The Sunrise on the Reaping book, by Suzanne Collins, came out just a couple of months ago, and already, casting has come fast and furious. Haymitch will be played by relative newcomer Joseph Zada, Plutarch Heavensbee by Jesse Plemons (Killers of the Flower Moon), Beetee by Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Elvis), Wiress by Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Mags by Lili Taylor (American Crime), Effie Trinket by Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown), and Caesar Flickerman by Kieran Culkin (Succession).
Fiennes isn’t the first actor to bridge the Harry Potter and Hunger Games fandoms. Toby Jones (voice of Dobby) played the Games’ announcer, Claudius Templesmith, in the original films. And composer James Newton Howard has scored all five Hunger Games movies so far and all three Fantastic Beasts movies.
Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman and Toby Jones as Claudius Templesmith in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (Credit: Lionsgate)
We can’t wait to see what Ralph Fiennes brings to President Snow when The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is released in theaters on November 20, 2026.
