The first trailer for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes” has finally arrived.
The nearly three-minute clip begins with an introduction to the creator of The Hunger Games, Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), who has summoned the districts of Panem together for the 10th Annual Reaping Ceremony, “in which we choose two children from each district to fight to the death in the Hunger Games,” he’s heard saying in the trailer.
The prequel film to “The Hunger Games” trilogy goes back to the beginning, 64 years before Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) became the tyrannical President of Panem.
— Photo: Lionsgate
“Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes” follows “a young Coriolanus (Tom 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 (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12,” as per the official synopsis.
— Photo Credit: Murray Close
In the trailer, Dean reveals that, this year, “there has been a change” in The Hunger Games.
“As a mentor, Mr. Snow, your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors,” he tells Blyth.
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As “Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates,” the synopsis continues. “With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favour. 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.”
“What happens in there, fuelled with the terror of becoming prey, see how quickly we become predator?” the Head Gamemaker, Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) tells Snow, who later says “everything is about winning.”
— Photo Credit: Murray Close
— Photo: Lionsgate
The anticipated film, directed by Francis Lawrence, also stars Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera and Jason Schwartzman.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes” hits theatres on November 17.