Are you ready to re-ignite your Hunger Games obsession? The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the franchise's long-anticipated prequel, is just around the corner and ready to take us back to Panem.
The last Hunger Games movie, Mockingjay: Part 2, hit theaters back in 2015, but author Suzanne Collins revisited the journey of President Coriolanus Snow for the 2020 prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The book's film adaption, starring Tom Blyth as Snow and West Side Story star Rachel Zegler as District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird, was confirmed in 2020 to the rejoice of some and despair of others.
Readers might already be familiar with the plot, but lots of revelations await viewers. How did we get to the “modern” Panem of the original books and movies, and what is Lucy's lasting impact across the Districts? The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has all the answers. So nothing catches you by surprise, here's everything you need to know about The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes — from its release date to key details on the cast and trailers.
What is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes about?
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is the film adaption of Suzanne Collins's novel of the same name. With events taking place 64 years before the first Hunger Games book, Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes stands as a prequel to the original Hunger Games series. Though it is mainly centered on President Coriolanus Snow's backstory, it also serves as an introduction to the fatal Hunger Games, giving us a glimpse into the spectacle's creation and earliest days.
“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,” Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' official synopsis reads. “With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girls' 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 who is a snake.”
Is anyone from the original movies appearing in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
While none of the actors from the original Hunger Games cast will appear in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the film does include younger versions of plenty of recognizable characters, from President Snow to his cousin Tigris Snow.
Who is in the cast of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes stars Tom Blyth as a young President Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute (and musician) from District 12 who gets assigned as Snow's mentee. Lucy is a musician and performer, and she has a few powerful musical moments during the film, including an “un-f*cking-believable” big finale moment, per producer Lucy Jacobson.
The rest of the cast is pretty star-studded. Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage plays Dean Casca Highbottom, the creator of the actual Games; Euphoria star Hunter Schafer plays the young version of Tigris Snow; and Josh Andrés Rivera, who just so happens to be Rachel Zegler's boyfriend offscreen, plays Sejanus Plinth, another mentor in the Games and a close friend of Snow.
Rounding off the cast are Jason Schwartzman as Games host Lucretius 'Lucky' Flickerman (yes, he's related to the Caesar Flickerman) and Viola Davis as the cruel Dr. Volumnia Gaul, a.k.a the Head Gamemaker. You can check out how all of these actors look in-character by scrolling through the promotional posters below:
Is there a trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
Yes, in fact, there are two official trailers for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The first trailer for the movie made its debut at CinemaCon 2023 in Las Vegas before debuting to the public on April 27, 2023. Hunger Games fans couldn't help but notice a few parallels between Zegler's Lucy and Jennifer Lawrence's beloved Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of the original books and movies. At one point in the trailer, Zegler-as-Lucy curtseys to the powers that be at the reaping, just as Katniss sarcastically does during her tenure in the Games, during the infamous shooting of the apple scene. According to Zegler, that little Easter Egg reference was a total ad-lib, harkening back to a pivotal moment from the original movies — and it sets the tone for events to come.
However, Lucy and Katniss are not the same character decades apart, so don't think we're going to be seeing Katniss Pt. 2 (or would it be Katniss 1.0?). “It is such a completely original Lucy moment,” producer Lucy Jacobson told Variety. "She’s such a performer. Katniss is the opposite. This is a woman who loves and lives to perform. To see the connection there, the history that she represents, and to think that Katniss Everdeen grew up knowing about Lucy Gray and this moment, it was just a great kind of microcosm of both how much of a new ground it is and how rooted it is in what we’ve seen, but in this backward-looking way.”
According to Francis Lawrence, who directed three of the four original movies, the group thought Lucy's curtsey may have become legend and Katniss referenced it while under the close eye of the Games. “I just thought it’d be really interesting if we create a history of it so that maybe she didn’t come up with it on her own. Maybe she’d heard about this girl from a long time ago having done the same thing,” Lawrence explained. “We’re also trying to find the ways of linking it to the other movies and into the things that people love.”
The second and final trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, unveiled on September 20, 2023, is more centered on Snow's perspective. “Mr. Snow. After everything you've seen out there in the world, what are the Hunger Games for?” Viola Davis's Dr. Volumnia Gaul asks. “The Hunger Games… they are to punish the districts. Those tributes don't have a choice,” Snow, then but a rookie mentor, replies. We then get a peek of everything that'll go down in the movie — which is a lot — before Dr. Gaul repeats her question to a now more seasoned Snow, as evidenced by his fresh buzzcut. The prequel looks every bit as action-packed and emotional as the rest of the Hunger Games movies as Snow struggles with his loyalties and the blurred line between “good” and “bad.”
Are there any first-look pictures of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
Yes, Lionsgate has released a bunch of pictures from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which you can check out in the scroll-through gallery below.
When is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes coming out?
The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will premiere in theaters nationwide on November 17, coinciding with the Thanksgiving holiday break.
Will there be more movies after The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
Suzanne Collins has not written any other Hunger Games books aside from the original trilogy and its prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, so it's unlikely that there'll be more Hunger Games movies after The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. That said, you never really know for sure. Fans have expressed interest in both more prequels and sequels, and you don't always need original material to serve as a guide, so anything could happen in the future. For now, though, nothing has been officially announced.
