Mockingjay director Francis Lawrence says that they are giving a couple of Plutarch Heavensbee’s lines to other characters to fill in scenes not shot by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The actor tragically died in February of a drug overdose before he had finished shooting his roles in Mockingjay, Part 1 and Mockingjay, Part 2.

Speaking at Cannes this week where he and the cast were handing out some early promotion for the first Mockingjay film, Lawrence said that instead of recasting the role they’ve revised the script.

“He was scheduled for 50 days or so and he had shot about 42 or 43 of those days,” Lawrence told Reuters. “He had about 8 days left but the meat of his performance was already finished.”

He added, “There were a couple of scenes that were pretty substantial which we ended up giving to other actors to take over and obviously although no-one is a replacement for Phil, the story still works.”

In our opinion, when you consider how much Hoffman had already filmed, not recasting Plutarch was a smart idea. Passing off some of Plutarch’s lines to other characters was a wise choice because viewers won’t even notice the subtle changes, whereas a whole new actor would’ve taken us out of the story. Plus, fans are used to dialogue adjustments in book to film adaptations.

Last week Lionsgate unveiled the first stills from Mockingjay, Part 1, and one of them depicts Plutarch with President Coin played by Julianne Moore (pictured above).

Mockingjay, Part 1 will hit theaters this November and Part 2 will open next November. A trailer for the first movie is expected soon.

Meanwhile, the cast continues to film Part 2 overseas. Check out recent photos of Squad 451 sequences being shot.