The latest Hunger Games prequel just keeps finding new faces to add to its cast, and its latest round is a doozy: Glenn Close and Billy Porter will play husband and wife in Sunrise on the Reaping‘s take on the second Quarter Quell.
Confirmed by Lionsgate at CinemaCon Europe this morning (via Deadline), Close and Porter will play Drusilla Sickle and Magno Stift, respectively. Sickle is the sinister Capitol escort to the Tributes from District 12 called up for the 50th Hunger Games–including the young Haymitch Abernathy (played by Joseph Zada in Sunrise) after he’s selected as the fourth Tribute to replace one of the selected candidates killed for attempting to flee the reaping.
Porter’s Stift meanwhile is Sickle’s long-time but estranged husband, the negligent designer assigned to District 12’s participants in the games. Meant to dress them in their elaborate outfits for each games’ media events, Stift gained an infamous reputation for re-using old outfits and ideas–as well as having a peculiar fascination with incorporating live reptiles into his fashions.
“Glenn Close is a dream Drusilla. She brings so much of her intellect and imagination to each role, creating characters who are unforgettable and iconic,” Producer Nina Jacobson said in a statement. “I think Glenn and Francis [Lawrence, Hunger Games director] will have a ball bringing Drusilla from the page to the screen.”
“Billy is one of those rare performers who can dazzle and devastate in equal measure on stage and screen,” Jacobson added of Porter’s casting. “He made an indelible impression on me when we worked together on Pose, both as an actor and a human being. Casting this show has felt like winning the lottery every time one of our idols said yes to us.”
Close and Porter join an increasingly expansive cast for the latest addition to the Hunger Games franchise. Beyond Zada’s Haymitch, the film includes Ralph Fiennes as the franchise’s latest President Snow, Jesse Plemons as games designer Plutarch Heavensbee, and Elle Fanning as the young Effie Trinket, still a social climber by the time of Sunrise.
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