Ralph Fiennes Is ‘Excited’ to Carry on Late Costar Donald Sutherland’s Hunger Games Role: ‘No One Can Be Him’

Ralph Fiennes is sharing excitement for his role in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

The actor, 62, was cast as President Coriolanus Snow — the character famously portrayed by the late Donald Sutherland in the original Hunger Games films — in Lionsgate’s upcoming adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ prequel novel in the series back in May.

“I worked with Donald Sutherland once. I thought he was fantastic,” Fiennes told Entertainment Tonight during a recent interview with Jodie Comer for their new movie 28 Years Later. “Obviously big shoes to sort of stand alongside of, but he brought wonderful complexity to that part and I’m playing a slightly younger version of him. I am challenged but excited. I’m looking forward to it.” 

Fiennes and Sutherland costarred in the 2006 movie Land of the Blind, a political satire in which the pair play men who plot to assassinate their country’s leader.

While Fiennes spoke with The Hollywood Reporter at 28 Years Later‘s London premiere on June 18, the actor said he is “really thrilled” to portray a younger version of Sutherland’s character in Sunrise on the Reaping.

“Look, I’m a Donald Sutherland fan. I’m not going to try and be Donald Sutherland, because no one can be him,” he said. “But I think the character he created is very complex… The complexity of that psychology, I hope I can echo in some way.”

Fiennes will costar with Joseph Zada, Whitney Peak, Mckenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke, Lili Taylor, Molly McCann, Iona Bell, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin and Ben Wang in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel.

Zada, 20, will star in the movie as a young version of Woody Harrelson’s character Haymitch Abernathy during his own journey through the Hunger Games two decades before the main series, which starred Jennifer Lawrence.

“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,” producer Nina Jacobson said of Fiennes’ casting on May 16. “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.”

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Sutherland died at 88 in June 2024. In 2023’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the first Hunger Games prequel story, Tom Blyth portrayed a younger version of President Snow, depicted as a Hunger Games mentor who begins rising toward his eventual dictatorial role within Collins’ fictional Panem.

28 Years Later is in theaters now. Sunrise on the Reaping will release Nov. 20, 2026.