May the odds be ever in your favor… Over a decade after Suzzane Collins’ Hunger Games appeared on the shelf, fans are pulled into the dystopian world of survival and betrayal once again. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is a prequel to the well known Hunger Games series. This story focuses on Cornelius Snow and his early life. 

Set 60 years prior to when Katniss Everdeen sparked a revolution, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows 18 year old Cornelius Snow (Tom Blyth). Snow is in his final year at the academy, the elite secondary school in Panem. The Snow family has fallen on hard times, young Cornelius sees a chance for change when he is chosen to be a mentor in the 10th annual Hunger Games. Only to lose hope when he finds out that he has been assigned the district 12 girl. 

Cornelius Snow (played by Daniel Sutherland in the previous movies) is cast as Tom Blyth. He is an English actor and his films include Scott and Sid and Benediction. Lucy Gray Baird is the district 12 girl Tribute, and is cast as Rachel Zegler. Rachel Anne Zegler is an American actress and singer, known for starring in West Side Story as Maria. Snow’s older cousin and friend Tigris Snow is cast as Hunter Schafer. She is an American model, actress, and LGBTQ rights activist, known for her role in Euphoria as Jules Vaughn.

Original Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence was cast as Katniss Everdeen when she was 21. Now 32, she shared her thoughts in a recent interview with The New York times. “That makes me feel old as mold. I remember being 21 and thinking, My God, one day they’ll redo and remake them. But I’ll be so old by then! I’ll be dead!” She will not be reprising her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes due to the time period that the story is set in.

Suzzane Collins wrote the hunger games series to “help young readers understand the harsh reality of becoming desensitized to mass death”. Collins was inspired by various periods of American and world history to write this novel. With more than 3.5 million copies of the book sold, the viewership for the movie is expected to be quite high. The film is scheduled to premiere on November 17, 2023.