Nearly eight years after the release of Mockingjay: Part 2, the Hungers Games are back for another round.
The New York Times bestselling novels became a worldwide hit with the movie adaptions starring Jennifer Lawrence, and Suzanne Collins resuscitated the universe with a prequel in 2020. Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes explored roughly sixty years before Katiness Everdeen's story began with a teenage Coriolanus Snow.
And now, that prequel is getting its own film, too.
"Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol," the official description reads. "With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird and a snake.”
The trailer is a visual feast – and the voice of Donald Sutherland, who plays President Snow in the original series of movies, appears at its end. "It's the things we love most that destroy us."
Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler star in the film alongside Peter Dinklage, Josh Andrés Rivera, Jason Schwartzman Viola Davis, and Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, who will play Coriolanus's cousin, Tigris Snow. Tigris' gender identity isn't discussed in the novel, so we assume it won't be a significant part of the story in the upcoming film.
Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will premiere November 17, 2023 in theaters. Watch the trailer below.
