There’s not much left for fans of The hunger Games to return to Panem. 11 years after the premiere of the first film in the saga that adapted Suzanne Collins’ books, the dystopian world comes back to life in the prequel The ballad of songbirds and snakes. And Lion’s Gate prepares us for the premiere with a new poster:
The hunger Games centered around Katniss Everdeen, played by Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, who lives in a post-apocalyptic America renamed Panem, a country living under a tyrannical government led by President Coriolanus Snow. As punishment to the districts for a previous uprising, each year a girl and boy from each district are sent to the Capitol to compete in a deadly televised contest that has only one winner, the one who manages to stay alive.
Katniss takes her sister Prim’s place in the 74th Hunger Games without knowing that she will become the symbol of the rebellion against the Capitol and President Snow, the spark of a fire that will eventually burn Panem to ashes to create a new start to find.
What is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes about?
The prequel novel, also written by Collins, focuses on a young Coriolanus Snow during Panem’s 10th Hunger Games, about 64 years before Katniss’ story. It follows Coriolanus as he prepares to escort District 12’s female tribute, Lucy Gray Baird. Despite his initial embarrassment and disappointment, Coriolanus soon believes that he and Lucy Gray have a chance to turn the odds in their favor.
Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid) plays Snow, taking over from veteran Donald Sutherland. He’s in West Side Story And Shazam! Anger of the Gods star Rachel Zegler, who plays Lucy. The ballad of songbirds and snakes also with Hunter Schafer, Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage, among others.
While there’s no official confirmation, the movie could just be the beginning of the franchise’s return. Lionsgate now has its own streaming platform and rumors of other Hunger Games spin-offs have been doing the rounds for quite some time. Fans have been asking for the onscreen stories of characters like Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) to be told.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes arrives in theaters on November 17.