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In Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Peeta steps foot back in the arena to protect Katniss, and since the release of Sunrise on the Reaping in March, rumors have been swirling that actor Josh Hutcherson will step foot back into the franchise. After a day spent playing with cats and dogs at the Pasadena Humane Society for NBCUniversal’s Clear The Shelters campaign, Brit + Co caught up with the actor...and asked about the rumors, of course.
Here's what Josh Hutcherson said about returning as Peeta in Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Will Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson be in Sunrise on the Reaping?
Murray Close/Lionsgate
"Yeah, no, that'd be cool," Josh Hutcherson said when I bring up the casting rumor. "No, I know nothing in that world right now."
Even though he says his focus for the day is getting all the pets in the animal shelter adopted, he does tell me, "Hunger Games is amazing, and I've loved it for many years and I will love it forever."
Peeta is without a doubt Josh's most empathetic character ("He's definitely a Labrador," Josh jokes), and he says forming emotional connections with animals as a kid helps inform his approach to humanizing characters.
"I think as a kid I was always very open and like a very empathetic kid," he says. "I think that is a big reason why I've always been drawn to loving animals and as well as drawn to acting. I think that it's an openness to feeling, and I think that dogs have so many big feelings, whether they're excited or scared or whatever, you know what I mean? They're very like it's all there, it's all evident and there's no masks and things like that. So yeah, I think that part of me being [an] empathetic and open kid definitely made be drawn to animals as well as as acting."
Josh Hutcherson's connection with animals started as a child. "I mean, as a kid, I grew up with dogs all the time," he says. "They have like such a capacity for love and nonjudgmental, and just so many things that humans do a little bit wrong, I feel like dogs make up for."
"I live a pretty chaotic life and my dog just very much [grounds] me," he continues. "They're full of love and energy, and it's just great to be around."
And if he were an animal himself? "I would be a dog, 100%," he says without hesitation. "It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty evident."
Excited for Sunrise on the Reaping? Check out Joseph Zada Wants A Sunrise On The Reaping Group Chat With Elle Fanning, Whitney Peak & More (Exclusive) to see what the cast is saying!
