Both Davis and Dinklage were Lawrence’s first choices for their respective roles. “Some of Peter’s scenes are some of my favorites in the movie,” he says. “I wanted to work with him for so long. He came in and blew everybody away.” Davis, on the other hand, had a “gravitas” that made her perfect for the role of the twisted Gaul, whose weapon of choice, per the trailer, are colorful snake mutations. (Remember those monkey and lizard mutations in the original films?) “We wanted to create a different kind of character in terms of powerful women in these stories,” Lawrence says of the gamemaker. Whereas Julianne Moore’s rebellion leader Alma Coin was a leader corrupted by power, Davis’ Volumnia is “a very strong believer in a specific philosophy and is grooming Snow in that direction,” he notes. “She finds strange joy and creativity in her job as a gamemaker. She’s a creative person with a very sinister underpinning, so there’s a lot of color in her wardrobe and in her hair, even her eyes, and also in her creation… She’s truly the first real gamemaker to think outside the box.”