Feeling hungry? For The Hunger Games, that is. It’s been a minute since we said goodbye to the dystopian world of Panem in 2015 with the release of The Hunger Games Mockingjay – Part 2, but the odds were ever in favour of the blockbuster YA SF franchise getting revived. Indeed, it has now been confirmed that The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will hit cinemas on November 16.
Director Francis Lawrence returns to the franchise with this adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ 2020 novel, a prequel set decades before The Hunger Games. Which means Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen won’t be making an appearance this time around. Instead, there’s another young Tribute from District 12, though—Lucy Gray Baird, played by West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler.
However, the main focus of this new instalment in the franchise is ambitious young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), scion of a once-wealthy family who sees an opportunity to restore their fortunes by acting as Mentor for Lucy in the upcoming Hunger Games. As you’ll no doubt recall, his plans work out rather well for him; by the time of the first film, he’s a) President of PanEm and b) played by Donald Sutherland (we should all be so lucky). But when we meet him here, he’s not nearly so ruthless and calculating as he will later become. Or so it seems…
The Hunger Games has never shied away from wearing its politics on its sleeve, but this time out we’re actually watching the rise of a future despot, which is a bold move for a series aimed primarily at the YA market. Will audiences sympathise with a dictator-to-be? President Snow as Byronic anti-hero? It feels like a difficult needle to thread, if we’re being honest, but we have to admit to being curious about the result. Let the games begin!
