Seneca Crane

Seneca Crane was the Head Gamemaker of the 74th Hunger Games. It was his 3rd year as Gamemaker. During the Games, Crane gave into public pressure to allow two victors from the same district to win. However, President Snow disagreed with this ruling and Crane rescinded the rule change. When the two remaining victors, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, threatened to consume the deadly nightlock berries simultaneously Crane reinstated the ruling, choosing to have two victors instead of none.

Biography
Crane is not mentioned in The Hunger Games, but his influence on the events in the arena is clear. After the Games' conclusion President Snow, upset that Crane allowed such a situation to occur, had him killed. In Catching Fire, Snow tells Katniss about Crane's death as an example of Snow's power and as a threat to her loved ones to ensure her compliance with what he wants. Later in the novel, while the Gamemakers are evaluating tributes for the 75th Hunger Games, Katniss hangs an in the form of a dummy with a noose she made and paints "SENECA CRANE" with berry juice on its chest. This earned her a 12 training score, a first in Hunger Games history.

The Hunger Games film
In the film adaptation, Seneca Crane is portrayed by Wes Bentley and is featured much more heavily than in the novel. In the opening of the film, he is having an interview with Caesar Flickerman about his plans for the 74th Hunger Games and his career as a Head Gamemaker. He has a direct hand in the managing the Games from the tribute parade through the Games' conclusion, and is present in the Training Center, also seeing Katniss shoot the apple out of the roasted pig's mouth.



Throughout the film, Crane meets with President Snow in the latter's rose garden to discuss the rising personality of Katniss and Snow's need to keep her (and the districts) in line. After a meeting with Haymitch Abernathy leads to Crane's initial change in ruling to allow two victors, Snow discusses the implications of the change with Crane and expresses his opposition to the change.

Death


Despite Snow's opposition, Crane decided to allow the two victors to live after they threatened to consume the poisonous nightlock berries and leave the Games with no victor. In the book it is never revealed how Crane died, only that his execution was ordered by Snow. It is hinted by Katniss that he was hanged by her hanging of the effigy during her private session for the 75th Hunger Games.

In the film, Snow has Peacekeepers escort Crane to an opulent room containing only an elegant bowl of nightlock berries and lock him in, forcing him to eat the nightlock berries and die.