Remember that guy everyone swooned over in The Hunger Games? Don’t get amnesia now — you know we’re talking about Peeta, aka Josh Hutcherson. Well all these years later, the boy-next-door allegations still stand, and the crush curve shows no signs of flattening thanks to Hutcherson’s latest role in I Love LA.

These days, the Kentucky-born actor is akin to Hollywood royalty. Propelled from child prodigy to bona fide leading man, we’re glad he made the leap. Resisting being pigeonholed into one genre, his film dexterity dabbles across multiple genres, from action-adventure to comedy-dramas.

Over the years, Hutcherson has assiduously chipped away at his resume. Speaking of highlights, let’s rewind to a few: from filming an orgy scene in Future Man (in front of his great-grandmother, no less) to his breakout turns that defined a generation. Now that we’ve got your attention, you may read on. 

I Love LA

The HBO show is the latest brainchild of Rachel Sennott, who co-wrote the comedy flick Bottoms. The trailer feels like an Erewhon fever dream, a hellscape where salads sit at a meagre $37 and customers carry around baskets hoarded with protein water. I digress. Hutcherson plays Dylan, a devoted Spanish teacher who takes on the role of boyfriend of the year to Maia, keeping her feet on the ground in the stuffy entertainment industry bubble she resides in. The HBO show premiered at Paramount Studios on October 28th in Los Angeles, and Hutcherson posed alongside Instagram’s resident comedian, Jordan Firstman, as well as Leighton Meester, Odessa A’zion and Rachel Bennett, who has intellectual rights to the show.

57 seconds

This 2023 sci-fi thriller is centred around a tech blogger who discovers a ring that lets him travel back by, you guessed it, 57 seconds. Although we aren't sure how much despair can be undone in that amount of time, Franklin Fox (played by Hutcherson) seeks revenge against a pharmaceutical company to seek justice. Is this the OG Luigi Mangione? Food for thought.

The Hunger Games

The dystopian corpus that is The Hunger Games consists of five lengthy on-screen sittings. Peeta, from District 12, is taken on by none other than heartthrob Hutcherson. The masses thought the film was Hutcherson's on-screen apex, yet he continues to defy expectations. Peeta's character arc ebbs and flows throughout the films, yet his love for the one who volunteers as tribute (aka Katniss Everdeen) remains unwavering. 

Bridge to Terabithia

For most of us, our first on-screen encounter with Hutcherson came via by Bridge to Terabithia, where he played Jesse Aarons. I doubt we need to unpack the heartbreaking story, but in the film, he befriends Leslie Burke, and together the duo create an imaginary world known as Terabithia. Not to merge into a lane of misery, but our hearts were then ripped into pieces as the film progressed. It’s an IYKYK situation; our hearts simply can’t bear reopening the wound.

The Beekeeper

This one takes the form of an action thriller film where Jason Statham is seeking justice for his landlady, who takes her own life after being scammed out of her life insurance money. In a rare role, Hutcherson plays the villain in this one. It's a hard pill to swallow for some fans, but even the best in the biz need to tap new veins from time to time.

The Kids Are All Right

This 2010 comedy drama, directed by Lisa Cholodenko, follows a same sex couple who live happily in Los Angeles. But things go awry when their kids set out to find their biological father. In a whirlwind search, without completely spoiling the plot, one of the mothers gets romantically involved with the kids' biological father. Things get – for the lack of a better word – messy.