‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ Trailer – Odds are Against Romance

The full trailer for Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes finds a young Coriolanus Snow falling in love with a tribute who, if he doesn’t figure out a way to alter their fates, will die during the Hunger Games. Billy the Kid‘s Tom Blyth stars as the lovestruck Coriolanus, and West Side Story‘s Rachel Zegler stars as the District 12 tribute who Coriolanus is tied up in knots over.

The cast also includes Oscar winner Viola Davis as Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul, Peter Dinklage as Dean Cesca Highbottom, Jason Schwartzman as Lucky Flickerman, Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, and Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow. Jerome Lance is Marcus, tribute from District 2; Ashley Liao is Clemensia Dovecote, one of Coriolanus’s closest friends and mentor to a tribute from District 11; Knox Gibson plays Bobbin, tribute from District 8; Mackenzie Lansing is Coral, tribute from District 4; and Aamer Husain plays Felix Ravinstill, mentor to a tribute from District 11.

Fionnula Flanagan plays Grandma’am, Coriolanus’s strict grandmother; Isobel Jesper Jones plays Mayfair Lipp, daughter of the mayor of District 12; Flora Li Thiemann is Livia Cardew, mentor to a tribute from District 1; and Burn Gorman is Commander Hoff, Scott Folan is Beanpole, and Carl Spencer is Smiley, Peacekeepers sent by the Capitol to District 12.

Honor Gillies, Eike Onyambu, and Konstantin Taffet play members of the Covey, a group of nomads in District 12. Michael Greco and Daniela Grubert are Strabo Plinth and Mrs. Plinth, wealthy parents to Sejanus Plinth.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will open in theaters and IMAX on November 17, 2023.

Based on the bestselling The Hunger Games prequel by Suzanne Collins, Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was directed by Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1, Mockingjay Part 2) from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt. Lawrence, Nina Jacobson, and Brad Simpson produced, with Suzanne Collins, Mika Saito, Jim Miller, and Tim Palen executive producing.

The Hunger Games Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
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)

The Plot, Courtesy of Lionsgate:

Experience the story of The Hunger Games — 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post- war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates.

With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.