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Welcome, welcome. Over a decade after The Hunger Games first hit shelves, a cinematic return to lớn its brutal world of survival, betrayal, & Capitol folly is upon us—and getting closer than ever, now that Viola Davis has officially joined the cast as villainous Dr. Volumnia Gaul.
The Ballad of Songbirds và Snakes, the 2020 novel that serves as a prequel to Suzanne Collins’s original trilogy, is being adapted for the big screen. The novel is phối decades before we ever meet Katniss Everdeen, & primarily follows a young Coriolanus Snow (the tyrannical president previously portrayed by Donald Sutherland) during and after the 10th annual Hunger Games. For context, the Games that Katniss volunteers for in the first novel and film are the 74th.
Snow, at this age, is far from the cutthroat political titan we know he’ll one day become. And though the franchise’s most beloved characters don’t appear in the narrative (those pesky logistics!), The Ballad of Songbirds và Snakes introduces a sprawling cast that contains references to—and echoes of—some that may surprise you. Here’s everything you need khổng lồ know about the project:
When will it be released?
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is scheduled lớn hit screens on November 17, 2023. The film is currently in production, with Francis Lawrence, who helmed Catching Fire & both Mockingjay installments, returning khổng lồ direct.
What do I need lớn remember?
Not much! As we said, The Ballad of Songbirds và Snakes takes place too long before the original trilogy for much crossover, beyond the basic premise: some indeterminate time in the future, the North American nation of Panem is divided into 12 districts và a Capitol. As a consequence of a failed uprising, each district must offer up two children between the ages of 12 and 18 to lớn compete and fight khổng lồ the death every year. The lone survivor returns home with wealth, fame, và unimaginable trauma. As we said, this prequel story takes place only 10 years after that war. Songbirds & Snakes is able khổng lồ show off its aftershocks in a visceral way that The Hunger Games never could.
Who’s in it?
Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid, The Gilded Age) has been cast as a young Coriolanus Snow, the unlikely protagonist of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. You know Snow as the insidious president who oversaw the Hunger Games và repeatedly threatened Katniss in his quest to lớn quell rebellion, but in the prequel, his once-wealthy family is living in near poverty. Coriolanus lives with his grandmother và cousin, Tigris, in a lavish Capitol apartment they can no longer afford.
Despite all that, Snow attends a prestigious Capitol high school và has scored himself a mentor position in the upcoming Hunger Games. (But no, they aren’t what you’re imagining. More on that later.) He is assigned District 12’s female tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, and initially sees her victory as a way to lớn ensure his own future success. After all, she has the charisma, và he has the cunning. But as the twists and turns of the Games draw him and Lucy Gray closer, Snow’s ambition endears him lớn the nightmarish Gamemaker, Dr. Gaul. Might he pursue a life he never imagined with this free-spirited girl? Or will his sociopathic tendencies give way lớn one of YA fiction’s most ruthless villains?
Well, this is a prequel, so you know the answer. But Snow’s journey is less a mystery than a tour de force in depicting how deadly self-victimization can be when deployed by the privileged.
Katniss wasn’t the first girl from District 12 khổng lồ cause trouble for Coriolanus Snow. West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler will star as Lucy Gray Baird, the young woman selected to lớn compete as District 12’s female tribute in the 10th Hunger Games.
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Lucy Gray is a thành viên of the Covey, a group that had, before the war, roved the country as a musical clan. We’ll spare you most of the details. What is important is that, when her name is called at the reaping, Lucy Gray’s loved ones support her with a song. She joins in, suppressing her tears và fortuitously convincing Snow of her potential. Though she isn’t prepared for the Games in the way Katniss was, she’s more clever than most presume, & her unique vision of freedom gives her (and maybe Snow?) something to fight for.
Tigris Snow, soon to be portrayed by Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer, is one of the few characters to lớn appear in both the main series và the prequel—though we wouldn’t fault you for forgetting her. In Mockingjay, Tigris is a Capitol ally who looks like, well, a tiger. Face tattoos, whisker implants, you name it. She’s the owner of a small boutique, and she cares for & feeds Katniss’s squad while they are on their quest lớn assassinate the president. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s revealed that the president is her cousin. Tigris acts as both a confidante and foil khổng lồ Coriolanus for much of the novel, with her better instincts at odds with his burgeoning ruthlessness.
Snow is, obviously, not the only mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. Josh Andrés Rivera (another West Side Story alum) will portray Sejanus Plinth, another foil lớn the future president. The Plinth family is not Capital-born; rather, they are “new money,” having made their wealth during the war. Having been raised in District 2, Sejanus has a moral compass that most of his classmates lack. Despite that, he and Snow form a genuine, if not slightly contentious, friendship.
Casca Highbottom is both dean of the Academy và the man credited with creating the Hunger Games. As such, he personally oversees the mentorship program that Snow và his classmates partake in—though he’s noticeably a shell of the man he once was. Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, Cyrano) will portray him in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
If Lucy Gray is the angel on Snow’s shoulder, Dr. Volumnia Gaul is the devil on his other. Gaul, who will be portrayed by Viola Davis, is the Head Gamemaker & mastermind behind the Capitol’s experimental weapons division. (Think Wes Bentley’s Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, or Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Plutarch Heavensbee in Catching Fire—but with a much more imaginative mean streak.) lượt thích Highbottom, Gaul is closely involved with the mentorship program.
What’s going khổng lồ happen?
Though The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is being touted as a “return lớn the Games,” you shouldn’t expect a survival thriller in the vein of The Hunger Games. The Games depicted in the prequel are far from the futuristic, awe-inspiring spectacles we’ve already seen onscreen. In fact, they take place entirely in a condemned amphitheater.
But, without giving too much away, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is less about the Games than how they became a phenomenon. The story starts before the reaping và continues after a victor is crowned. It takes us through the Capitol, into the arena, and, yes, back to District 12. There are gnarly deaths (hey, Panem hasn’t changed that much) và plot twists likely lớn make your head spin. But at its core, it is a story of privilege, of exploitation, và of power. It is the story of Coriolanus Snow. Và you already know the ending.
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