After waiting seven years, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the much-awaited prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy, offers fans the chance to return to Panem. Fans reacted positively when Lionsgate formally announced a release date at CinemaCon in April of last year.
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The Hunger Games movie franchise rose to tremendous popularity since the release of the first film, The Hunger Games, in 2012. The finale, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 was released in 2015, leaving fans of the trilogy wanting more.
The new prequel film will transport fans back in time, many years before the events of the first Hunger Games film. The film’s main focus will be President Snow. Francis Lawrence, who has worked on previous films in the franchise, will direct The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Michael Arndt will also return to pen the prequel. He previously contributed to Catching Fire. And here’s everything we know about the Hunger Games prequel film in terms of plot, cast, and other details!
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Release Date
The film is set to release on November 17, 2023. For the time being, Lionsgate has only released a teaser image of the new film’s logo. As a result, we will have to wait a little longer to see all of the new previews.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Plot
Like the previous films in the trilogy, the prequel will also be based on a novel by Suzanne Collins, published in May 2020. While we cannot expect the film to strictly adhere to the novel, it could be on the same core plot as its source text.
The prequel is set to take place 64 years before the events of the first part of the Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games. More specifically, it takes place during the Dark Days, 10 years before the district’s First Rebellion.
It will focus on the early life of the tyrannical Coriolanus Snow (President Snow), who fans of the trilogy are familiar with, and will take place before the birth of the major protagonists in The Hunger Games, including Katniss, Peeta, and Gale.
The storyline of the film reads:
“Young Coriolanus is handsome and charming, and though the Snow family has fallen on hard times, he sees a chance for a change in his fortunes when he is chosen to be a mentor for the Tenth Hunger Games… only to have his elation dashed when he is assigned to mentor the girl tribute from impoverished District 12”
Given the film’s plot and the time period in which the prequel is set, viewers may be able to learn more about Panem’s history and the reasons behind the creation of the Hunger Games The emphasis on Snow should also help to explain how and why the character changed to become the oppressive leader we see in the Hunger Games trilogy.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes : Cast
With the cast growing by the day, the most recent addition was Euphoria actress Hunter Schafer, who will play Tigris Snow, Coriolanus Snow’s cousin and an old acquaintance of Cressida and Plutarch Heavensbee who lives in the Capitol. The prequel will also star Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler as Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray Baird respectively. The other cast members include:
- Josh Andres Rivera as Sejanos Plinth
- Ashley Liao as Clemensia Dovecote( A tribute from District 11)
- Mackenzie Lansing as Coral (A a tribute from District 4)
- Jerome Lance as Marcus (A tribute from District 2)
- J . Knox Gibson as Bobbin (A tribute from District 8)
- Aamer Husain as Felix Ravinstill (A mentor to a tribute from District 11)
And to answer the most anticipated question, will Jennifer Lawrence reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen (District 12’s tribute in the 74th and 75th Games)? We don’t know for certain at this point. However, with the prequel announcing a new cast member every now and then, there is a possibility of Jennifer Lawrence’s return.
