“The Hunger Games: The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes” Official Trailer Lures You Back to Panem

Your return trip to Panem has officially been booked.

Lionsgate has revealed the first official trailer for The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the newest installment in the franchise, this one based on Suzanne Collins’ prequel novel. Fans of The Hunger Games will now get a chance to see how the wicked world of Panem came to be.

Director Francis Lawrence returns to the franchise with a brand new cast, beginning with the film’s leads; Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as the young Coriolanus Snow. The film captures these young would-be lovers long before Snow grew up to become the tyrannical president of Panem in the original films (played with such nimble menace by Donald Sutherland) when he was an orphan in the Capitol and enrolled at the Academy.  The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set some 64 years before the events in the first Hunger Games film, with the young Snow very much in love with Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird. This is when tragedy strikes; Lucy becomes a tribute in the 10th Annual Hunger Games, and Snow wants to save her. They’ll both have their hands full, however, with Dr. Volumnia Gaul, played by Viola Davis, a woman so easily moved.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, director Francis Lawrence said, “This is very much a story about love. It’s this kind of love story set in a different kind of a world in a different time.”

Joining Zegler, Blyth, and Davis are Peter Dinklage, playing Casca Highbottom; Josh Andrés Rivera, playing Sejanus Plinth; Hunter Schafer, playing Tigris Snow; and Jason Schwartzman, playing Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman.

Here’s the official synopsis for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes:

“Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Blyth) is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler), the girl 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 a snake.”

Check out the trailer below. The Hunger Games: The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes slithers into theaters on November 17.

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Featured image: Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Photo Credit: Murray Close