When The Hunger Games movies came out around ten years ago, fans were all over the fascinating, gruesome concept of the dystopian world of Panem. The series was a hit in Hollywood, grossing over $2.97 billion worldwide. The popular series is returning in the new prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The movie centers around the series’ central villain, President Snow, and his rise to power and tyranny.
Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games series, published the prequel on May 19, 2020. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years before the timeline of the original Hunger Games series and centers around the 10th annual Hunger Games. The book follows Coriolanus Snow as a mentor for the 12th district’s female tribute, Lucy Gray Baird. MINOR SPOILER REVIEW (skip to the next paragraph if you would like to avoid minor spoilers). Snow serves as a mentor to Lucy Gray, and they both fall in love. However, Snow’s hunger for power overpowers his love for Lucy Gray because Snow sees his love for Lucy Gray as a weakness. While Snow climbs to the top of the social pyramid, the Games start taking its gruesome form. Readers get more information about how the Hunger Games became what they were when Katniss and Peeta were tributes. The book’s main focus, however, is on how Snow rises to power through deceit and lies while trying to keep his love for Lucy Gray Barid afloat.
The book became such a wild success that Lionsgate decided to jump back into The Hunger Games world with a new movie adaptation of The Hunger Games prequel. The movie is set to come out on November 17, 2023. The film stars Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow, Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, and Hunter Schafer as Snow’s cousin, Tigris Snow.
Many fans of the beloved series, including me, are coming out of respite, expressing their new excitement for the upcoming Hunger Games movie. Like many fans, I have read The Hunger Games series and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, so I am excited to see how the movie compares to the book. Fara Ebrahimi (11), another fan of the book/movie series, is very excited about the movie adaptation, saying, “The past movies were a great adaptation of the novels so I’m hoping that this new prequel movie will be just as good.”
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has some serious living up to do, but many fans are rest assured that the movie adaptation will be a hit just like the movie adaptations before.
