Robert Knepper joins 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay' as new character Antonius

Robert Knepper has been a busy man this week. News broke that the actor would play the villainous Clock King on the CW series Arrow, and now comes official word that he will join The Hunger Games: Mockingjay parts 1 and 2 as a brand new character exclusive to the films.

Knepper will appear in the third and fourth Hunger Games movies as Antonius, a minister who serves President Snow (Donald Sutherland), the leader of the Capitol. The character is not present in any of the books and has seemingly been created just for the films.

The announcement came Wednesday afternoon from the official Hunger Games: Catching Fire Twitter page:

It's official! Please welcome @Robert_Knepper as Antonius to the cast of @TheHungerGames: Mockingjay Parts 1&2. pic.twitter.com/LWSCS5AuAp

— Catching Fire (@TheHungerGames) December 11, 2013

Knepper has played villains numerous times in the past, including a role as Samuel Sullivan on Heroes and as white supremacist leader Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell on Prison Break.

The Hunger Games movie franchise has been wildly successful and Lionsgate decided to split the third and final book in the series, Mockingjay, into two parts. This has started to become common practice with major movie franchises based on books. Harry Potter and Twilight were two of the more famous franchises to adopt this model.

Since its release on Nov. 22, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has made $342,022,652 domestically and $336,700,000 internationally for a grand total of $678,722,652 as of Dec. 11, according to Box Office Mojo. The sequel pulled in $158,074,286 during its opening weekend.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy and Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket.