diff --git a/modules/cassandra/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/CassandraContainer.java b/modules/cassandra/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/CassandraContainer.java
index a12ac03f18d..74d40306e6f 100644
--- a/modules/cassandra/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/CassandraContainer.java
+++ b/modules/cassandra/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/containers/CassandraContainer.java
@@ -68,13 +68,6 @@ public CassandraContainer(DockerImageName dockerImageName) {
 
         addExposedPort(CQL_PORT);
         this.enableJmxReporting = false;
-
-        withEnv("CASSANDRA_SNITCH", "GossipingPropertyFileSnitch");
-        withEnv("JVM_OPTS", "-Dcassandra.skip_wait_for_gossip_to_settle=0 -Dcassandra.initial_token=0");
-        withEnv("HEAP_NEWSIZE", "128M");
-        withEnv("MAX_HEAP_SIZE", "1024M");
-        withEnv("CASSANDRA_ENDPOINT_SNITCH", "GossipingPropertyFileSnitch");
-        withEnv("CASSANDRA_DC", DEFAULT_LOCAL_DATACENTER);
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -131,6 +124,19 @@ protected void optionallyMapResourceParameterAsVolume(String pathNameInContainer
             .ifPresent(mountableFile -> withCopyFileToContainer(mountableFile, pathNameInContainer));
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Set up environment variables to allow Cassandra to start up. You may choose to override this method for example
+     * if you want to set your own variables to run multi-node clusters.
+     */
+    protected void initEnv() {
+        withEnv("CASSANDRA_SNITCH", "GossipingPropertyFileSnitch");
+        withEnv("JVM_OPTS", "-Dcassandra.skip_wait_for_gossip_to_settle=0 -Dcassandra.initial_token=0");
+        withEnv("HEAP_NEWSIZE", "128M");
+        withEnv("MAX_HEAP_SIZE", "1024M");
+        withEnv("CASSANDRA_ENDPOINT_SNITCH", "GossipingPropertyFileSnitch");
+        withEnv("CASSANDRA_DC", getLocalDatacenter());
+    }
+
     /**
      * Initialize Cassandra with the custom overridden Cassandra configuration
      * <p>