Elizabeth Banks Gives Her Blessing As Elle Fanning Becomes The New Effie Trinket
Effie Trinket is getting a glamorous new makeover, and the original actress is totally here for it. Elizabeth Banks, who famously brought the colorful and quirky Capitol escort Effie Trinket to life in The Hunger Games films, has officially passed the torch to Elle Fanning, and she’s more than a little thrilled.
“I’m super excited,” Elizabeth said at the New York premiere of her new show The Better Sister on May 21. “I texted the producers as well, and I think she’s perfect.”
Elle, 27, will step into the eccentric heels of a younger Effie in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, a new prequel set decades before Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark ever stepped into the arena. This time, the spotlight is on a young Haymitch Abernathy, played by rising star Joseph Zada, as he battles through his own deadly Games.
The casting of Elle caused a stir among longtime fans — and apparently, that includes Elizabeth herself. She confirmed she even texted Elle to share her excitement directly. “I think everyone’s really happy. And I’m really happy about that,” she added. “I’m excited for the next generation to have their Effie.”
Elizabeth, now 51, did confess one tiny thing: she hasn’t actually read Sunrise on the Reaping, the Suzanne Collins book the new movie is based on. “So please don’t ask me any more about the book. I feel terrible, but I have yet to read,” she joked.
The original Hunger Games films turned Elizabeth’s version of Effie into an instant fan favorite, and Lionsgate’s co-president Erin Westerman knows that’s a tough act to follow. But she’s confident Elle is the right choice.
“From the moment Suzanne released the book, one question echoed from fans around the world: Who will play Effie?” Erin shared in a statement. “Elizabeth Banks made her iconic — so who could honor that legacy while bringing us back to Effie’s early, most formative days? Elle Fanning was the undeniable fan favorite from the start. The odds, it turns out, were in our favor.”
Effie didn’t appear in the 2023 prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which centered on a young Coriolanus Snow and District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird. But Sunrise on the Reaping gives fans a chance to see Effie’s roots — and, apparently, her rise.
As for Elizabeth, she’s keeping busy. Her latest project is a limited Prime Video series called The Better Sister, based on Alafair Burke’s bestselling novel. She stars alongside Jessica Biel as sisters caught in a twisted murder mystery after their shared husband, Banks’ ex and Biel’s current partner, is found dead.
