Lionsgate is at it again, announcing today that TV’s Alan Ritchson has been added to the ever-growing cast of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
The sequel sends previous game victors Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark on a “Victor’s Tour” of Panem’s 12 districts, during which Katniss notices the birth of a rebellion and President Snow announces the 75th Annual Hunger Games. However, these Games will bring new dangers and unexpected challenges that will drag Katniss and Peeta back to the Arena and test everything they know about themselves and each other.
Ritchson will play Gloss, another former career tribute who won his games for District 1 years before Katniss first stepped foot in the arena. He’s noteworthy in that he is the first of two victors in his family (the second being his sister, the as-of-yet-uncasted Cashmere). He and his sister both come back into the fold in the sequel, giving Katniss and her allies a formidable challenge throughout the book. Gloss and Cashmere are close, considered to be classically beautiful (something I feel that Ritchson is a good fit for) and are hinted to be physically stronger than their other fellow victors as they won their games at a young age. As a career tribute, he probably had killed many tributes in his original games and plays an important role in the fate of one of Katniss’s allies.
Ritchson’s a bit more of a prominent actor than others cast this week. Though he has not been in many films, he is perhaps best known as Aquaman on the WB’s Smallville (making him the first actor to portray the character in a live-action television show) and Thad Castle on Spike’s Blue Mountain State and had also appeared on CSI: Miami and 90210.
Along with Ritchson, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth return to star opposite newcomers Amanda Plummer, Jena Malone, Meta Golding, Bruno Gunn and Lynn Cohen. Michael Arndt is in talks to pen the script for director Francis Lawrence. Filming will start next month in Atlanta before moving onto Hawaii in November [DigitalSpy]
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire hits theaters on November 22nd, 2013.