By: Katey Rich
At some point I might just set up a template for announcing minor Hunger Games: Catching Fire casting news, since at the rate this news is coming in there will be something to say every day. For what feels like years we’ve been getting updates on who will play minor new characters in the film, while still anxiously waiting for the only new casting news anybody cares about– who’s going to play Finnick?
And don’t run that Sam Claflin rumor by me again– I want actual news, y’all, and probably soon– after all, Catching Fire is set to start production this fall. Anyway, while we wait for District 4’s golden-haired champion to finally get on board, we’ve got casting news about another former Hunger Games champion. Lionsgate has announced that Bruno Gunn will play Brutus, the former victor from District 2 who is paired with another former District 2 champion, the recently cast Enobaria, when… well, I don’t think we can tell you exactly why there are so many former tributes involved in Catching Fire if you haven’t read the book, so if you’ve somehow missed out on the Hunger Games phenomenon, we’ll just leave it there.
Gunn– who has, can we say it, the perfect name to be playing a tough guy tribute named Brutus– used to go by Bruno Gioiello, and under that name you can find him in roles on Prison Break, The Office,Curb Your Enthusiasm and Medium, as well as in Bad Teacher. And, it bears mentioning, Gunn is white, while his fellow tribute Enobaria, played by Meta Golding, will be of Haitian descent. You might remember a lot of weird racial talk swirling around The Hunger Games in March, specifically around the character of Rue, who hailed from District 11 alongside fellow tribute Thresh; both were black, and there seemed to be an insinuation that everyone in District 11 was black in scenes of a riot taking place there. In the Hunger Games books author Suzanne Collins seemed to suggest that this future version of America consists mostly of people of blended race, and the largely white cast of The Hunger Games bugged some people. Enobaria’s race in Catching Fire is never specified, nor is Brutus’s, and it’s nice to see the producers bring in two actors who help further suggest that Panem– while a totalitarian and brutal place– is maybe less racially divided than we are. Seems truer to Collins’s novels, as well as better chance for actors who are best for the parts to be cast as these tributes.
Source: Cinema Blend