The complete Hunger Games trilogy , spread over four film adaptations from Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novels, came to a victorious finish in 2012, grossing almost US$3 billion in total so far. But there was still hope for District 8 fans, as the franchise’s director Francis Lawrence teased a possible prequel back in 2015. “The interesting part of the story for me is to go back 75 years earlier and see how everything became the way it is,” he told Entertainment Weekly . Five years later, Collins released her book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes , and film company Lionsgate recently confirmed that it will be adapted into a feature film for the big screen. Set decades before it became the tyrannical state of Panem as we know it, the story follows a young Coriolanus Snow, before his role as the city’s dictatorial president. Although Jennifer Lawrence (who played the lead role of Katniss Everdeen in the original films) and co-stars Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson will not be starring in the prequel, the new production has made way for rising stars to blaze a new path in the hopes of continuing the successful saga. The evolution of Willow Smith: meet Will and Jada’s daughter So far, a cast of relatively new faces has been confirmed: West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler , Tom Blyth, Laurel Marsden (of Ms Marvel fame), Josh Andrés Rivera and Ashley Liao, among others. The film has been confirmed for release on November 17, 2023. Set to play Tigris Snow, the future president’s cousin, is a rising star you probably recognise: 23-year-old Hunter Schafer. The trans actress and model rose to fame as Jules Vaughn in HBO’s Euphoria , starring alongside Zendaya , Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney. But what else do we know about her so far? She was raised in a conservative state Born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1999 to conservative parents, Schafer grew up in a state of majority Republican-voting red counties, which wasn’t ideal for her progressive attitude. “I have to be honest – I was not thrilled!” she told i-D . “Everything I was interested in was happening in big cities. And it’s all I wanted, all the time … I had these really vivid dreams of what I wanted to achieve.” Although she reportedly has three younger siblings, Schafer rarely talks about her childhood or family. Nevertheless, she once praised her mother to Harper’s Bazaar , describing her as “amazing” and saying that she cries every time she talks about her. “She’s just really powerful,” she added. In 2017, she famously made headlines for being part of the federal lawsuit against her state’s “bathroom bill”, a proposed law that requires individuals to use the bathroom based on the gender of their birth certificate. She was the youngest plaintiff in the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal’s case, and told Teen Vogue that her aim was to “represent other transgender youth in North Carolina who are as hurt as I am, and to raise awareness and acceptance for transgender individuals”. Who is the richest woman in the world right now? (No, it’s not Kim K) She told W Magazine at the time, “It’s not just the lawmakers who are making the decisions. It’s a social structure that’s being upheld by them.” Thanks to Schafer’s continued battle, the bill was repealed in 2018. She started out as a model Before landing her HBO hit role, Schafer was a professional model in New York, walking runways for luxury brands including Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs, Helmut Lang and Dior, to name a few. With her height and striking facial features, it’s no wonder young Schafer was so sought-after in the world of high fashion. Schafer was all set to study fashion design at London’s Central Saint Martins before she caught her big break in 2019 with Euphoria . When asked that same year about returning to modelling, she remarked to The New York Times that she was going to focus on acting: “I think I’ve taken a step back [from modelling] for now just because I really liked the way I felt in front of the camera acting and I want to keep exploring.” The face of Prada But since then it seems that Schafer has bounced back to her modelling roots, starring in several of Prada’s recent campaigns since December 2021. She became the new face of the luxury fashion house’s latest Galleria campaign, walked the runway for the brand during Milan Fashion Week in February alongside Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber , and partnered with the brand once again in May, this time for Prada’s Symbole handbag. She’s also just landed an endorsement deal with Shiseido. As an icon for the transgender community, Schafer has undoubtedly shaken up the fashion world and opened doors for aspiring LGBTQ+ models. Did Reese Witherspoon’s daughter Ava Phillippe come out as LGBT? And she just made her directorial debut She’s kept very private about this one, but Schafer is adding yet another skill to her resume – and this time it’s behind the camera. According to The Hollywood Reporter , the talent is testing the waters with a music video directorial debut, but is yet to reveal the details. “It seemed like a really good place to have the wiggle room to make some mistakes if I needed to, before approaching something much more ambitious, like a short film or a feature, which, hopefully, I will do someday,” she said. This comes with news that her first feature film, Cuckoo , is in the works, which she’ll star in alongside Crazy Rich Asians ’ Gemma Chan , Sofia Boutella and John Malkovich. It’s currently in the early stages of development. She and Zendaya are besties Much like their on-screen Euphoria characters, Schafer and the Disney alum are besties in real life too. The co-stars often post photos together on Instagram, and Schafer once told W Magazine about their close relationship, saying, “We’ve formed a really special bond over the past eight months that I’m so thankful for.” In a New York Times article she also referred to the Dune star as a “new best friend”. Who is the father of Amber Heard’s baby? Meet daughter Oonagh Paige She’s dating her Euphoria co-star, Dominic Fike After months of speculation, it was confirmed that Dominic Fike and Schafer are indeed in a romantic relationship. They were spotted on numerous occasions together, holding hands and kissing, but it wasn’t until Fike said in an interview recently that he’s “very much in love” with the blonde beauty that fans could celebrate the anticipated good news. The supportive boyfriend is so infatuated with his new belle that he even visited the Prada store four times in eight days just to see her new campaigns, according to Buzzfeed News. She’s a proud LGBT icon but “‘doesn’t want to be called an activist” While Schafer has shown she’s an outspoken advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, she nevertheless says that she “doesn’t want to be called an activist”, according to The New York Times. Why? Because she says the term better describes “a community organiser who is working every day and directly with community members, and making it a job to take care of and speak up for a community in some way”. As a busy actor, she doesn’t yet see herself as someone advocating to that extent. At least not yet anyway, saying instead that she’s simply “vocal about my identity sometimes”. Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .