Casting ‘Catching Fire’: The case for Ben Foster or Mark Strong as Romulus Thread

Perhaps you are a Hunger Games super-nerd, and you immediately recognize the name Romulus Thread. If so, congratulations. You have out-obsessed us all. You deserve to hang out with Suzanne Collins all day and you should take Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth or Josh Hutcherson to prom, or to the farmers market, or for some caramels, or whatever arbitrary places people go these days.

Also, if you knew that getting some caramels was a Good Will Hunting reference, you’re my new favorite person. Please take me with you to the farmers market. I will carry your groceries, all day, every day.

But yeah, so, Romulus Thread! Everyone knows about Katniss, Gale, Peeta, Cinna, Haymitch and Effie, but Romulus Thread isn’t a good guy. He’s not a Hunger Games champion, like Finnick Odair or Johanna Mason, the topics of my previous two Casting Catching Fire posts. Nope, he’s the new District 12 Head Peacekeeper introduced in Collins’ second novel, the head honcho of the Stormtrooper-like police officers of the Capitol who patrol each district.

With their white uniforms and body armor, Peacekeepers look like they’re consistently on riot duty, always ready to break up some rowdiness with their batons and whips. Poor people, right? They probably deserve it.

Look at them escorting Katniss to the Cornucopia! Basically their outfits look like Equilibrium mated with Star Wars.

Anyway, what’s interesting about Romulus Thread is that he’s the first fully evil Peacekeeper we see in District 12, Katniss’s home. In The Hunger Games, Katniss has a somewhat amicable relationship with the Peacekeepers, specifically Head Peacekeeper Cray, a heavy drinker who is probably in his 40s, and the younger Darius, a redhead who makes a point to always flirt with Katniss and is probably in his early 20s. Cray and Darius aren’t the nicest guys—the former manipulates the poorest women of District 12 into having sex with him, and the latter sees no problem with objectifying Katniss—but they let her and Gale break the rules. They’re aware the two illegally hunt, but they don’t do anything about it; Cray even buys Gale’s poached turkeys. In a sea of corrupt and entitled people, Cray and Darius aren’t innocent—but they’re not all bad, either.

But then Katniss won the Hunger Games, and President Snow realized how much of a threat she was, and Cray and Darius weren’t enough to keep District 12 in line anymore. Enter Romulus Thread, new Head Peacekeeper and the cruelest asshole around. After Gale mistakenly tries to sell turkeys to him, he has him publicly whipped; he hits Katniss in the face; and he plunges District 12 into an unprecedented culture of fear. He has the fences re-electrocuted, and he tells Katniss and Gale he’ll kill them if he ever sees them in the woods. And Cray and Darius—the latter tried to stop Gale’s whipping after the first 20 lashes—are turned into the Capitol for not being tough enough. Both of their tongues are cut out, turning them into voiceless Avox slaves for the Capitol, and Darius is later tortured and killed.

It’s clear, then, that Romulus Thread’s epic dickishness has far-reaching consequences. Thanks for the murders, bro.

Casting Cray and Darius isn’t really that hard. The former has to be someone callous but somewhat likable—I’m thinking Iain Glen, from HBO’s Game of Thrones, BBC’s Downton Abbey and the Resident Evil films. 

The Brit is clearly threatening (obvious in his role as Dr. Isaacs in Resident Evil), but he’s a little wry and clever, too, able to convey deeper emotions than just meanness. His time on Game of Thrones has proven that.

And for Darius, how about Jamie Bell ...

... or Joel Kinnaman?

Both of them know how to be somewhat upstanding but also a little inappropriate, which Bell has proven in stuff like Defiance and Man on a Ledge and Kinnaman has shown in AMC’s The Killing (he’s the best part of that thoroughly terrible show, actually). Either one could be believable hitting on the out-of-their-league Katniss and later suffering because of it. Darius isn’t a bad guy, really, he’s just in a bad situation. Bell or Kinnaman would be perfect for that.

But back to Romulus Thread. Which actor is capable of being that harsh, that vicious, that unyielding? And who would really agree to a part where your greatest accomplishment onscreen is whipping a guy? Well, I’m sure this wishlist is highly unlikely, but I’m throwing it out there: Ben Foster or Mark Strong. Let it happen!

Why Foster? Because he excels at playing unhinged, maniacal men, from Charlie Prince in 3:10 to Yuma to The Stranger in 30 Days of Night to Steve in The Mechanic to Sebastian in Contraband. There’s always a storm brewing behind his eyes; imagine how threatening he could be. I could see Foster zealously whipping a guy, no problem. His angelic features would make the violence that much more affecting.

And Strong, of course, is the same way, even though he’s about two decades older than Foster and has ventured into more mainstream stuff like Sherlock Holmes, Green Lantern and John Carter. Watch Strong torturing George Clooney in Syriana, or beating up Cillian Murphy in Sunshine, or manipulating Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies, or threatening Aaron Johnson in Kick-Ass, or gazing at Colin Firth in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and it’s immediately understood how scary this guy can be. Strong is magnetic and unstoppable onscreen, the kind of guy who uses his roguish charm to lure you in—and then you’re gone. You’re not you anymore. You’re probably dead. Whoops.

So Ben Foster, Mark Strong—they’re my dream picks for Romulus Thread. And if either one of them ends up being the guy to beat the crap out of Liam Hemsworth, my life will be complete. He deserves some kind of punishment for dating Miley Cyrus, OK? Let’s just be real about that.