The Hunger Games Has Reentered The Arena

By Allyson Johnson | Film | April 28, 2023 |

By Allyson Johnson | Film | April 28, 2023 |

For all we gripe about needless sequels, prequels, reboots and more that Hollywood is determined to shove our way, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at least looks interesting. Based on the novel by author Suzanne Collins, the prequel details the life of a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), the last hope of his lineage. Snow becomes a mentor to Rachel Zegler’s Lucy, a tribute from District 12, and the two of them unite to turn their odds. The story follows the two as they try to thwart the games while Snow, in particular, battles with his inner demons and impulses, which compel him to the dark side.

Considering it’s set in the past and Snow is a character the audience came to know in the original series, as played by Donald Sutherland, the stakes about where the character ends up are lowered. That didn’t make Andor any less engaging. Hopefully, the character work and thrill of seeing this particular world on the big screen again will escalate tension where the inevitability of his conclusion had lessened it.

One of the more exciting parts of the new trailer is getting to peek at the cast. Zegler delivered a tremendous performance in her debut film West Side Story and her most recent, the box-office failure Shazam! Fury of the Gods, didn’t highlight those talents. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has a better chance of doing so.

The entire cast is phenomenal. Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Josh Andrés Rivera, and Viola Davis all star alongside Zegler and Blyth. Director Francis Lawrence, who directed three of the four original films starring Jennifer Lawrence, also returns.

Fans of the series will no doubt be delighted to see a return to this world. However, with the same director spearheading the film, with a character we already know even if we don’t currently recognize, it will be interesting to see if the film manages to draw in any new fans. Do teens still read The Hunger Games? Is this genre of YA still as popular as it was when it first premiered? As an old person looking in, it seems like the scale has tipped toward other models of storytelling. That said, there’s longevity in action and romance, and the casting is already more remarkable than the original films (I’m sorry, Liam Hemsworth), so maybe The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will manage to amass a whole new following.

Regardless, it will be a chance to watch Dinklage, Davis, and Schwartzman go big and broad, for which we are grateful.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes arrives in theaters on November 17, 2023.