Whatever Happened To Josh Hutcherson After The Hunger Games?

Josh Hutcherson's life was never the same after "The Hunger Games" saga. Though he more or less pulled away from the public eye after soaring to fame in the dystopian romance franchise, he has continued to show up in unexpected projects. From playing a villainous criminal ringleader to a fashion model, the actor has gone through a wild transformation after he graduated from "The Hunger Games."

After all, as the actor told Entertainment Weekly in 2020, "The Hunger Games" franchise was basically his version of college. He started the first film when he was only 18, and four years later, he came out to face the real world. "It was the first time I was away from my family and on my own." He learned a lot during that time, including his relationship with fame and what kind of actor he wanted to be. 

"Hunger Games" changed the actor's life, and to this day he finds ads for the latest installments "triggering." "Like, I'm supposed to be somewhere!" he said in a 2024 Entertainment Weekly interview. Though the franchise is far from finished, for Hutcherson, the door might be closed off for good. He has since moved on from playing a teenage heartthrob and the YA genre and venturing into the R-rated mature space with the potential of leading a hit horror franchise — a lot has happened to Josh Hutcherson after "The Hunger Games."

In a 2020 chat with Entertainment Weekly, Josh Hutcherson called his time at "The Hunger Games" film series "a double-edged sword." The pros of doing franchise work are obvious; he not only made a good chunk of cash, but got to act alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. "The biggest positives were, number one, the experience," he told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2020. "The experience of getting to work with such incredible actors for such a long period of time and seeing how they work." While playing Peeta Mellark, he worked closely with superstars like Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, the late legend Donald Sutherland, and Mahershala Ali, just to name a few. "[T]he list is pretty mind-blowing," he gushed.

However, Hutcherson began to worry about how playing such a beloved character like Peeta might impact his career in the long run. "You can become boxed in as an actor, professionally," he said in Yahoo! Entertainment. "And that's tough, people can only see you as that character and it's hard for them to imagine you in something else." 

Perhaps understandably, Hutcherson wasn't exactly clamoring to hop aboard another franchise after "The Hunger Games." As he told Entertainment Weekly, "If that opportunity came up again, I would have to think about it more."

After "The Hunger Games" saga, Josh Hutcherson could've jumped into another action-packed blockbuster or embraced his heartthrob status. However, the actor wanted to try a different lane. "I'm definitely drawn to heavy material," he told IndieWire in 2014. Interestingly, Robert Pattinson and Daniel Radcliffe followed a similar path after their own mega successful franchises drew to a close — and Hutcherson admired their career trajectories.

"[Pattinson is] a great example of someone who was attached in some way to a huge, huge project and known as one character," he told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2020. Similar to Hutcherson, who gained prominence in "Little Manhattan" and "RV' before joining the dystopian romance franchise, Pattinson had an impressive resume before "Twilight," including playing Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." After "Twilight," he built out his filmography with a wide variety of flicks, such as David Cronenberg's thriller "Cosmopolis" to Christopher Noland's spy epic "Tenet,"and the Safdie brothers' exhilarating crime drama "Good Time."

"And now he's killing it," Hutcherson said of Robert Pattinson's stunning transformation. "[He's] doing incredible work as an actor and you don't see him as that [Edward Cullen] anymore." It gave Hutcherson hope. Though he knew it'd take years to change the world's mind, he was prepared to do the work. After "The Hunger Games," the actor moved away from the YA genre altogether. 

It's no secret that CGI and other effects were used in the making of "The Hunger Games" movies. And after acting in four of those flicks, Josh Hutcherson was ready to say goodbye to green screen action movies for a while. "These stunt performers that wore these tight bodysuits that just looked ridiculous, it was kind of hard to take it seriously," he once told the Daily News with a laugh. "When I'm on set, I always think, 'Dude, what are we doing here? We're spending 100 million dollars to make this movie. I don't even understand." 

After "The Hunger Games," Hutcherson grounded himself with indie projects like "Escobar: Paradise Lost," which he picked up in between the second and third installments of "The Hunger Games." Pivoting from a big-budget blockbuster franchise to a smaller flick was a welcome change of pace for the star. "I've — in my experience — loved making smaller movies, independent films," he told IndieWire. "'Hunger Games' is cool because you have all these resources, but it's big and it's heavy and it's hard to move. When you have this lighter, more nimble crew you feel more free."

After "The Hunger Games," Hutcherson stayed in the indie scene, even though it meant playing smaller roles. He starred in supporting roles in James Franco's 2016 Western thriller, "In Dubious Battle" and Franco's 2017 critically acclaimed "The Disaster Artist."

Though Josh Hutcherson has been acting since he was 9 years old, he didn't become a mega famous celebrity until "The Hunger Games." As much he loves being a professional actor, being a star whose personal life is suddenly under a microscope really wasn't his deal. "I hate attention. I didn't choose it," he told IndieWire in 2014. He went on to note that he and Jennifer Lawrence had a similar outlook on Hollywood: "We hate the business but we love making movies."

What's more, Hutcherson isn't a fan of navigating gossip or probing interview questions. "I'm not a PR person, I'm an actor. I want to make movies and tell stories, and all the auxiliary things that come from 'The Hunger Games' can be frustrating at times," he told The Independent in 2014. 

At the height of "The Hunger Games" mania, the actor struggled to fly under the radar. As he said in The Independent, he couldn't even play soccer at a park without people calling him out. In a 2017 chat with ET (via Yahoo!), he recalled going to an award ceremony in Spain, where suddenly he became the center of attention despite not being nominated for anything. "The way people all turn and you just feel these eyes on you — it feels super surreal and odd," he said. 

Both Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth leveraged their "Hunger Games" experience to land more blockbusters. Lawrence picked up the sci-fi epic "Passenger" to star alongside Chris Pratt and reprised her role as Mystique in "X-Men: Apocalypse," while Hemsworth landed "Independence Day: Resurgence" to ride spaceships and fight aliens with Jeff Goldblum. Josh Hutcherson, unlike his "Hunger Games" castmates, wanted to take on something different. And evidently, when you're one of the stars of a wickedly successful movie franchise, you can afford to be as choosy as you want when it comes to picking your next project. 

"I've been very selective over the last few years and, thankfully, because 'Hunger Games' was successful, I was able to kind of recoil back and field everything and wait for that right thing to come along," he told ET in 2017 (via Yahoo!). He stressed that a big reason he didn't venture into blockbusters was because he wanted to stay sharp as an actor. "Blockbusters, you can get a little lethargic and lazy in the performances," he said, noting that big-budget movies in general can feel formulaic at times. "When you have hundreds of millions of dollars invested into something, you need to f**king follow an algorithm!" he said.

Josh Hutcherson has also gotten into directing and producing. He made his directorial debut with a short psychological thriller called "Ape" in 2017. The project serves as part of "The Big Script," an incubator series consisting of five short films from emerging actor-filmmakers and was launched in a partnership between Hutcherson's company Turkeyfoot Productions, Conde Nast Entertainment, and Indigenous Media. In "Ape," Hutcherson plays the lead role of Travis, a young man who has schizophrenia. Talking about his experience directing himself for the first time, Hutcherson admitted that he was initially nervous about it. "It was challenging for sure," he told Variety. "I love acting and directing so much and I respect both of them immensely, so to have to take on both simultaneously was daunting." He had read the script many years ago and had tried to make it work back then. Going into this project the second time years later, Hutcherson knew the material from the inside out, and the preparation helped ease his nervousness.

Being in the director's chair also changed his perception. "Film is such a director's medium." He shared that being in a position to direct where he wanted things to go without feeling out of place was a great experience. "I felt really comfortable." After "Ape," Hutcherson went on to direct two music videos: "West Coast Massive: High & Low" and "Foster the People: Worst Nites." He was also credited as an executive producer in "Escobar: Paradise Lost" and produced four episodes of the TV series "Future Man."

Josh Hutcherson's minor role in James Franco's "The Disaster Artist" led to his starring role in the sci-fi comedy television series "Future Man." The Hulu sitcom was produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who also worked on "The Disaster Artist."Evidently, Hutcherson, Rogen, and Goldberg clicked while making the 2017 flick — so much so, they decided to make a TV show together.

"They pitched me the rough idea, and it sounded absolutely insane, super original time-traveling comedy with the Seth Rogen 'Sausage Party'/'This Is the End' brand of comedy," Hutcherson said on an episode of Variety's "Remote Controlled" podcast. "It sounded really great." "Future Man" was Hutcherson's first foray into TV, and this wasn't an accident. Rather, he'd intentionally avoided the medium up until that point. "I had a very antiquated idea of it," he admitted to Entertainment Weekly in 2020. However, "Future Man" made him change his tune. "What better group of people to take a swing at this? It was so fun," he said.

In addition to taking on the small screen for the first time, the role gave Hutcherson a chance to push himself as an actor. "I hadn't done much comedy in my life and definitely had not been the lead of a show. That was really an exercise of not judging yourself and being an absolute clown," he said in his 2024 chat with Entertainment Weekly.

Josh Hutcherson's filmography has had its fair share of sliding doors moments — and no, we don't mean he was in the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow rom-com. When he was a kid, he was up for one of the "Home Alone" movies but didn't get it. Years later, when he was auditioning for "The Hunger Games," he also read for Peter Parker/Spider-Man in "The Amazing Spider-Man." Hutcherson came close to joining the MCU, but the role eventually went to Andrew Garfield. "They just end up hiring somebody else," he dished to Inverse in 2024. "I never found out why. I also do know that three weeks or so after I auditioned, I ended up getting 'Hunger Games,' so it kind of worked out." 

No kidding. As previously noted, "The Hunger Games" movies were very popular; the first installment alone made almost $700 million at the global box office. Looking back on the success of the final flick, Hutcherson told IndieWire, "It's like, hard to believe. Because you think back to having fun making the movie and enjoying the time, and you know it was gonna be something that we were proud of and good, but you don't expect it's going to do those kinds of things."

Though he's had some very successful movies since, it seems safe to say "The Hunger Games" will stay Hutcherson's biggest hit... unless he does end up joining the MCU one day. And hey, it sounds like he's game. As he told Inverse, "I'd be open to it, man. I'd throw some webs around."

Josh Hutcherson initially auditioned for a low-level villain in David Ayer's 2024 action thriller "The Beekeeper," but the director realized he was perfect for the main villain, Derek Danforth, opposite Jason Statham's titular Beekeeper. As Hutcherson told Entertainment Weekly, "The fact that David saw that in me, that I could bring this guy to life was a huge vote of confidence."

It's no stretch to say Derek couldn't be further away from Peeta Mellark. In "The Beekeeper," Hutcherson plays the  ringleader of a criminal organization that rips people off via phishing scams. "The fact that David saw that in me, that I could bring this guy to life was a huge vote of confidence," Hutcherson told EW. In the same interview, Ayer shared that he loved seeing Hutcherson take on this character. "I feel like we're going to introduce him in a new way to an audience, but in a way that's really fun," the director said.

In a separate chat with Discussing Film, Hutcherson shared that he hopes to keep taking on parts that might surprise longtime fans. "The space that I got to work in here is definitely a direction that I would like to explore more of," he said.

"The Beekeeper" star has stayed a busy bee. In 2022, Josh Hutcherson was cast in the adaptation of the hit horror video game "Five Nights at Freddy's." In the movie Hutcherson plays Mike, a new security guard at Freddy's Fazbear's Pizza, a once-popular pizzeria that has more or less been taken over by possessed animatronic characters. The movie, which was released in 2023, felt like the start of the next chapter for the actor.

"I'm happy now to be in a position, with 'Freddy's' having come out, 'Beekeeper' about to come out, that I can find the next thing that I can sink my teeth into," Hutcherson told Entertainment Weekly in 2024. "I think that 'Freddy's' is a great stepping stone in that regard because Mike feels older. He doesn't feel like a teenager, he feels like a young man. I'm really excited to see what that brings me in the future."

The movie was a box office smash, and a sequel was promptly greenlit: The second installment is set to hit theaters in December 2025. While once upon a time Hutcherson wasn't so keen on the idea of diving into a big franchise, it seems he'd be very on board to stay in the "Freddy's" world for a while. "This could have a very potentially long run," he told Esquire in 2024. "And it could be a lot of fun."

In 2024, Josh Hutcherson dove into the world of fashion as a model in an exclusive collaboration between Ritz-Carlton and the Madrid-based streetwear label Late Checkout on a ten-piece capsule collection. "I thought it would be a cool combination of a somewhat edgy boutique brand like Late Checkout and the iconic feel of The Ritz Carlton," Hutcherson told The Hollywood Reporter. In the promo video, "The Hunger Games" alum plays a Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong employee who pulls out all of the stops to make sure a very important guest has just the stay he's looking for — and yes, everyone looks chic as can be. 

Hutcherson later told Esquire that the gig totally changed his personal approach to style. "I've been very much, my whole life, just the same five T-shirts, same two pants, and shoes until they stop working," he said. "But running in circles with people that care about how they look and use it as a form of expression has really got me more interested and excited about it as well." What's more, it opened his eyes to the magic of tailoring. Sounds like someone's going to stay Peeta Mel-looking good.