May the odds be in everyone’s favor.
During the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards Sunday night, Lionsgate debuted the first teaser for the upcoming Hunger Games prequel subtitled The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Though no footage from the film was revealed, the chilling teaser shows a gold snake slithering toward a gold bird on a tree, both shedding snow from themselves.
“You’re invited to return to the Games,” text in the trailer reads. “In 2023, the world will discover who is a songbird and who is a snake.”
The prequel stars Billy the Kid actor Tom Blyth as a young Coriolanus Snow before he was the president of Panem, played by Donald Sutherland in the Hunger Games movies. West Side Story breakout Rachel Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12 in the 10th annual Hunger Games, where kids fight to the death in front of an audience. (Jennifer Lawrence’s character Katniss Everdeen was District 12’s tribute in the 74th and 75th Games.)
An official synopsis for Ballad reads, “Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol.”
RELATED: Everything to Know About The Hunger Games Prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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“With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, 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,” it continues. 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 who is a snake.”
Emma McIntyre/WireImage Tom Blyth
Francis Lawrence, who directed the last three films in the series — The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Parts 1 and 2 of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — will return to direct the new movie, while series author Suzanne Collins will serve as an executive producer alongside Tim Palen. Michael Lesslie will write the script, based on Collins’ 2020 book.
“Like everybody, I first saw Rachel Zegler in West Side Story, and like everybody, I knew I was watching a star who would command the screen for a generation,” said director Lawrence in a press release. “Lucy Gray is a perfect match for her as an actress: the character is bold, independent and defiant, but also vulnerable, emotional and loving. Rachel will make this character unforgettable.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is in theaters Nov. 17, 2023.
