The Hunger Games Character Austin Butler Auditioned For

Austin Butler is one of the most in-demand young stars in all of Hollywood right now — so it might be surprising to learn that he auditioned for a huge young adult franchise and completely bombed.

Butler sat down with Jodie Comer, his co-star from "The Bikeriders," to chat with Buzzfeed Celeb for their "30 Questions" series; when the two started talking about some of their most surprising auditions throughout their career, Butler revealed that he tried out for a huge role in the "Hunger Games" movies. "I auditioned for The Hunger Games, and I didn't get it at all. I don't even think I got a callback. What's the character, Peeta?" Butler recalled, laughing with Comer (who, for her part, said she auditioned for "Mamma Mia!").

Still, it seems like Butler's feelings aren't hurt about not even getting a callback; he called Josh Hutcherson, who ultimately played Peeta Mellark, "great" in the film series. So who is Peeta, and how's Butler doing these days despite missing out on such an enormous opportunity? (Spoiler alert: Butler is totally fine, but we'll get to that in a moment.)

Obviously, Austin Butler did not play Peeta Mellark — especially because he made it sound like he really whiffed his audition — so who did? That would be Josh Hutcherson, who was, before then, likely best known for "Zathura: A Space Adventure," "Bridge to Terabithia," and the Oscar-nominated family drama "The Kids Are All Right." In 2012, Hutcherson joined fellow young stars Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth for the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling dystopian novels "The Hunger Games," and the franchise helped him become an enormous star.

With Lawrence in the lead as Katniss Everdeen, a teenager who volunteers as tribute for her sister in the 74th Annual Hunger Games — a cruel event held annually by the Capitol of Panem (the universe's revamped North America) where children and teens from twelve "districts" fight to the death until one winner emerges — Hutcherson brought sensitivity, kindness, and even a little humor to the role of Peeta. When Katniss offers to fight for her younger sister, Peeta is chosen as the male tribute, and he throws a serious wrench into the proceedings by announcing, on live television, that he's in love with Katniss. Throughout the series, the two cling to each other for emotional support amidst countless horrors, and Peeta provides a perfect contrast to Lawrence, whose Katniss is steely, even a little cold, and closed off as a form of self-defense.

Austin Butler is an Oscar nominee; it's pretty obvious that losing the role of Peeta Mellark to Josh Hutcherson didn't hurt his career in the slightest. Around the time that "The Hunger Games" came out in 2012, Butler showed up in television shows like "Life Unexpected" and the short-lived "Sex and the City" prequel "The Carrie Diaries." A few years later in 2019, he actor had a huge breakthrough when he took on a much more mature role as real-life figure Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's revisionist history "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," and it was only upwards for Butler from there.

In 2022, Butler starred as the King himself in Baz Luhrmann's sensational, super-stylized biopic "Elvis," earning an Oscar nod for best actor (and picking up an accent that he still, to this day, doesn't seem to be able to fully shake). Since then, Butler has been a part of enormous projects like "Dune: Part Two" (as the secondary antagonist Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, nephew of Stellan Skårsgard's Baron Vladimir Harkonnen) and the AppleTV+ series "Masters of the Air," and "The Bikeriders" is just his most recent high-profile film. Butler will likely only keep getting bigger and bigger roles, so he's probably not losing any sleep over not playing Peeta Mellark.