After months of needlessly fervent speculation, we finally know who has landed the highly coveted role of Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Sam Clafin – best known for supporting roles in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Snow White and the Huntsman – has officially been cast in the part. Linosgate’s press release describes Finnick as “Charismatic and clever…a District 4 Hunger Games victor when he was fourteen.”
With Clafin, Lionsgate seems to have set its sights a bit lower than what was initially reported many months ago, when rumor had it that big, critically acclaimed names like Armie Hammer, Garrett Hedlund, and Taylor Kitsch were in the running. Clafin is a much more unproven talent, with his parts in Pirates and Snow White failing to leave much of an impression.
Then again, those were severely underwritten roles, and in Finnick, Suzanne Collins’ novels give Clafin has a very strong foundation to work with. Hopefully he can hold his own opposite Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and the rest of the first film’s immensely talented cast.
From Lionsgate’s press release:
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) – a competition that could change Panem forever.
Directed by Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins shooting later this year for a November 22nd, 2013 release.
