A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Trailer Released!
After much anticipation (at least from me), the trailer for the upcoming Hunger Games prequel has finally graced our eyes! For anyone who doesn't already know, the great Suzanne Collins wrote a Hunger Games prequel, taking place 65 years before the events of the trilogy. The book was released in May of 2020, and the movie will be in theaters November 17th, 2023.
Source: Wikipedia
To summarize the plot without giving anything too cool away, the story follows an 18 year old Coriolanus. As in future President Coriolanus Snow, the “bad guy” Katniss challenges time and time again in the original trilogy. I don’t know about you, but I love a good villain backstory. I mean, Disney’s Cruella is easily one of my favorite movies. So getting to see not only young President Snow, but also how he actually faces hardships, really humanizes him and makes me as a reader understand him more.
Our other lead is the beautiful and talented Lucy Gray Baird. For you OG Hunger Games fans, she’s the singer-songwriter behind one of the most influential songs from the series- “The Hanging Tree”. That’s right, we get more backstory on that! The story sees Snow as he becomes one of the first mentors when that practice is introduced just before the 10th Hunger Games (for reference, Katniss participates in the 74th and 75th Games). He has to mentor Lucy Gray, the female tribute from District 12.
As seen in the trailer, the movie will naturally follow the same plot. I really can’t express the amount of hype I have for this movie. I love books a lot, and finding a good movie adaption is often difficult. Especially when it comes to the middle school classic series. With heavily criticized adaptations like the Percy Jackson films, as well as the 2020 Artemis Fowl movie put out by Disney, it can be understandable to be hesitant to watch a movie adaption. However, the Hunger Games movies are somewhat well known for being pretty book accurate. Of course, there are some moments and things that don’t make it on screen, such as Katniss knowing the Avox assigned to her in book 1. But overall, the movies bring the series to life in a way that pleases the fans.
Image credit: IMDb
Even just in the trailer for the next installment in the Hunger Games series, I can see the evidence of that. The casting is perfect, my personal favorite is Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom. I genuinely can’t imagine Highbottom looking any different now. And of course, I can’t not mention the perfect casting of Lucy Gray, who’ll be played by West Side Story star, Rachel Zegler. Between the cast, the set designs, and the mere glimpse we’ve gotten into this recently post world war Capital, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes seems like it’ll live up to the precedent set by its predecessors.
As the book (and movie poster) says, “Everyone Hungers For Something,” and right now, I’m hungering for this movie. You can watch the trailer here, and I would highly recommend not only reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but the whole Hunger Games series if you haven’t yet. Till then, Go Wildcats, and may the odds be ever in your favor.
