By: Kristy Puchko

Since The Hunger Games opened huge, blowing away even the highest expectations of its box office projections, movie fans have been giddily speculating on who might be cast in its sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Based on the second novel in Suzanne Collins bestselling YA trilogy, the film follows Katniss on a new adventure, where the fame and prizes from her victory in the 74th Annual Hunger Games has made her life in District 12 less hardscrabble. However, her climactic final strategy drew the ire of the Capital and the cruel President Snow, which leads to a shocking new gimmick for the 75th Hunger Games, dubbed The Quarter Quell.

This opens up a whole new string of characters to be cast, and already Amanda Plummer, Jena Malone, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman have signed on to play the wacky Wiress, the uninhibited Johanna Mason, and new Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee respectively. And while the role of fan favorite Finnick Odair has yet to be cast, Lionsgate has announced that Lynn Cohen has committed to play his 80-year-old mentor, Mags, a former Hunger Games champion from District 4.

Cohen is a storied actress of stage and screen, but may be best known as Miranda’s judgmental nanny Magda on Sex and the City. However, Cohen recently stunned me with her layered and poignant performance as a lonely widow who engages in a charming May-December romance in the indie dramedy Hello Lonesome. There she showed to be an actress who can convey incredible weight and meaning with a look and so seems an excellent choice for the noble Mags. However, it seems unlikely to me that the producers would cast this role without having Cohen audition opposite their chosen Finnick, so I suspect we’ll get a follow-up on his casting soon.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire goes into production this fall, and will hit theaters on November 22, 2013.

Source: Cinema Blend