One of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final performances remains one of his most seen: as the cryptic gamesmaker behind The Hunger Games in the film adaptations of Suzanne Collins’s bestselling YA novels. But ahead of a prequel film partly revolving around the character, director Francis Lawrence has cleared up a bit of confusion about the new movie’s casting process.

When it was announced that Lawrence was developing Sunrise on the Reaping, which takes place 24 years before the events of 2012’s original The Hunger Games, many fans speculated that Plutarch Heavensbee – played by Hoffman in the movies – could be portrayed by his 23-year-old actor son Cooper Hoffman. It was speculation strengthened by the fact that Lawrence and Hoffman worked together on last year’s hit dystopian thriller The Long Walk.

But in a new interview, Lawrence explained why he didn’t cast the young Hoffman.

“Meeting Cooper the first time [for The Long Walk] was very powerful,” Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter. “To see, and feel, the similarities they both have, it made me emotional.

“I love to work with people over and over, and Cooper is high on that list, but we needed someone [for Sunrise on the Reaping] who felt considerably older than Cooper is.”

Hoffman was in the middle of shooting the final two films in the original Hunger Games series, titled Mockingjay (parts one and two), when he died at the age of 46 from a drug overdose. An Oscar winner for 2005’s Capote who also stole scenes in films as diverse as The Big Lebowski, The Talented Mr Ripley, Boogie Nights and Happiness, Hoffman was declared the greatest actor of the 21st century by The Independent in 2025.

Ultimately, Plutarch is played by Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons in the new film. Plemons himself has drawn comparisons to Philip Seymour Hoffman throughout his career, and even played his son in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 psycho-drama The Master.

Cooper Hoffman has emerged as one of the buzziest young talents in Hollywood in recent years, following his breakout role in Anderson’s 2021 comedy drama Licorice Pizza. This year he will appear in the S&M comedy I Want Your Sex, alongside Olivia Wilde and pop star Charli xcx, as well as the controversial Artificial.

Artificial, which stars Andrew Garfield as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was dropped by its original backers at Amazon shortly after filming had been completed. The announcement came just months after Amazon announced it was investing $50bn in Open AI and roughly a year after Altman himself attended the wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to Lauren Sánchez.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Hoffman suggested that he was slightly relieved when speculation arose that Artificial would never see the light of day.

“It got dropped, and I was like, ‘OK, maybe this never needs to come out’,” he joked – but only because he was uncertain about his performance as a software engineer in the film. He admitted that he lacked confidence on the film’s set, primarily as he had been asked to shave his head.

Speaking to the outlet, Garfield said Hoffman’s worries were silly. “He’s like a bull in a china shop in this film; there’s a brashness and a brutishness that he found for the character that I really love,” he said. “And it’s different than his usual style, but it felt lived-in, and I thought he looked fantastic. Very close to the real person he’s playing, too.”

Artificial has since been picked up by Neon, and will be released later this year in the US.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which will feature a cameo from the franchise’s original star Jennifer Lawrence, is released in UK cinemas on 20 November.