I changed the code as follows and it seems to be fine for my purposes.

my $dash = '-';
my ( $prefix, $suffix, @range, );
my $format = "%s%d%s%d";
my $args = [$prefix, $range[0], $dash, $range[1],];
$prefix = "stuff";
$range[0] = 2;
$range[1] = 10;
my $new_name = sprintf ("$format", @$args);
print "NEWNAME -> $new_name\n";
[download]

Becomes:

my $dash = '-';
my ( $prefix, $suffix, @range, );
my $format = "%s%d%s%d";
my $args = '$prefix, $range[0], $dash, $range[1],'; #changed
$prefix = "stuff";
$range[0] = 2;
$range[1] = 10;
my $new_name = sprintf "$format", eval "$args"; #changed
print "NEWNAME -> $new_name\n";
[download]

Thanks to all that looked