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Credit: LionsgateAfter setting a release date for Thanksgiving, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) has finally dropped a chilling trailer, and fans are loving it.
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Based on the best-selling book series by Suzanne Collins, the Hunger Games movies have been a massive success earning billions of dollars and critical acclaim. The story of Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, battling against President Snow, played by Donald Sutherland, for her life and the freedom of the people of Panem has inspired a rebellious spirit in people worldwide.
But as we’ve learned from Cruella (2021) and Wicked (2024), people love to know where their favorite villains come from. And if the trailer is anything to go by, fans of the sinister Coriolanus Snow are going to love The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
‘The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ Takes Us Back To The Hunger Games’ Roots
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Taking place decades before the first movie, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes tells the story of a young Coriolanus Snow before he became the President of Panem. As a mentor for the 10th Annual Hunger Games, he is assigned to Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. The two must work together to survive the games as well as the political climate, actions that will reveal “who is a songbird, and who is a snake.”
The film stars Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow, Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, Peter Dinklage as Hunger Games creator Casca Highbottom, Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow, Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, and Viola Davis as the gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul.
The trailer shows a much earlier version of Panem, where the games are much more rudimentary and brutal. Instead of a vast wilderness, the battlefield is much more compact inside a concrete building. The screens and technology are also much more reminiscent of 1950s Americana.
This trailer is especially nerve-wracking because we already know what Snow will become: a tyrannical dictator who is all alone. Audiences may want to root for the young couple, but their fate is already sealed. This is confirmed at the end of the trailer when the older version of Snow says, “It’s the things we love most that destroy us.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will premiere on November 17, 2023.
What was your favorite book in the Hunger Games series? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!