Lionsgate has finally shared the highly anticipated first trailer of the Hunger Games prequel entitled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
The film will tell the story of how the Hunger Games become the spectacle that it was in the original trilogy starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Set decades before Katniss and Peeta’s love story, the film will show how Panem rose from the ashes of the civil war and made the vicious Hunger Games the beloved spectacle it became.
Here is everything you need to know.
What does the new Hunger Games trailer reveal?
The trailer revealed that the movie would be set during the 10th Hunger Games, when Rachel Zegler’s character Lucy Gray Baird becomes District 12’s tribute and fights to stay alive.
As the trailer unfolds, we see characters from the original movies as their younger selves, contributing to making Panem the extravagant dictatorship it is trying to become.
The preview starts off with the game-maker Dr Volumnia Gaul, portrayed by the award-winning Viola Davis, introducing Casca Highbottom, played by Peter Dinklage.
We hear Highbottom tell Coriolanus Snow that he wants to “turn these children into spectacles, not survivors” as he changes the approach Panem is taking towards the Games.
The trailer sees Snow start to build a close bond with Baird, telling her his job is to “take care” of her. The audience is left with a feeling that Snow will end up falling for the tribute he is mentoring, especially when one of Snow’s famous lines from the original movie echoes: “It’s the things we love most that destroy us”.
What is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes based on?
The prequel will be based on Suzanne Collins’ novel with the same name, which was published back in 2020. The author is among those who created the script for the movie.
Our review of the book summarised the book as “a half-hearted love story between Lucy and Coriolanus as she enters the games, and the aftermath, when Coriolanus is banished to District 12 to be a Peacekeeper”.
The original trilogy films were all big hits at the box office, so the hope is for the fifth instalment to do well, too.
When is the release date?
The production of the movie took place between July 2022 and November 2022, and it won’t be long before the movie hits the big screen.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to be released in cinemas across the globe on November 17, 2023.
