Second “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” Trailer Reveals a Panem-Shaking Relationship

The second trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is here, inviting you back to Panem to a time before Katniss Everdeen was becoming a living legend and Coriolanus Snow wasn’t a brutal despot but a young striver. Lionsgate has dropped a fresh look at the prequel, which comes from seasoned Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes stars Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as the young Coriolanus Snow and follows them and their Panem-shaking relationship. Seasoned Hunger Games watchers (and readers of Suzanne Collins’s novels) know that Coriolanus Snow will grow up to become the tyrannical president of Panem in the original films (played with impeccable menace by Donald Sutherland); the new film introduces a young Coriolanus when he was an orphan in the Capitol and enrolled at the Academy, some 64 years before the events in the first Hunger Games film, with the 18-year-old Snow attempting to salvage his family’s reputation in a post-war Capitol by becoming a mentor in the 10th annual Hunger Games. Coriolanus is paired with the tribute from District 12, a young woman named Lucy Gray Baird, who could teach him a thing or two as well.

Lucy is not just a prequel version of Katniss. The film, based on the prequel novel by Suzanne Collins, has a totally different approach to the games, which includes manipulating people to achieve her goals.

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

Check out the trailer here. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes his theaters on November 17:

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.”

For more on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, check out these stories:

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

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