After eight long years, fans of the Hunger Games can return to the bloody dystopian world of Panem in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, coming this November. Set sixty years before the main films, we will see the 10th Hunger Games and an entirely new aspect of the society that forces children to fight to the death in order to serve as both oppressive control over the subjugated Districts and wild entertainment.
Based on Suzanne Collins' novel of the same name, Songbirds and Snakes will focus on the President of Panem Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow (Tom Blyth) when he was just a high school senior long before he became a tyrannical dictator and the female tribute from District 12 Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), whom he must mentor for the Games.
Going so far back in time in the history of Panem, there are a lot of questions and mysteries from the main films that Songbirds and Snakes could answer and solve, and there is much that we hope to see carry over from the novel. Here's what we want to see in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Update September 29, 2023: This article has been updated by Jessica Peerez with more of what we want to see from The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and some hints at what might play out following the new trailers that have been released.
The First Rebellion That Started the Games
Catching Fire ends with the 75th Hunger Games. However, Panem is older than the Games, and the rebellion of the Districts we see in the main films wasn't their first. We don't know the origins of the dystopian nation or how the world became so, but we know that Panem instituted the Games for a reason, ironically the same reason that ended the Games - rebellion.
Just like how District 13 led the successful Second Rebellion, District 13 also led the failed First Rebellion. The Capitol suffered greatly because of the Rebellion and launched the Hunger Games as a reminder of what happens when people decide to rebel. Snow helped modernize the Games to make it more entertaining and cruel as a school project in revenge for his family's suffering during the Rebellion. Given this, it would be interesting if the prequel gave some focus to the First Rebellion as it led to the Hunger Games.
The Rest of the World Outside Panem
We know nothing about the world outside Panem or even how Panem came to be in the first place. We only know that after some great series of ecological disasters across the globe brought the collapse of modern civilization, Panem might be the only semblance of society left on Earth. We never see anything outside the Districts, so we don't know.
Lucy Gray Baird and her family, though, are like gypsies, traveling across Panem to perform and even outside the borders of the Districts, so there may be more left in the world after the global disaster, and we want to know what's happening out there. Is the rest of the world as horrible as Panem, or are they okay with letting Panem murder children and minding their own business?
Who Tigris Is to Snow
In Mockingjay: Part 2, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) hides out in Tigris' basement (Eugenie Bondurant), a Capitol citizen with surgical alterations to make her look like a tiger. Tigris helps Katniss and company hide from the Capitol because she has some unspecified reason to hate Snow.
While it's never stated in the films, Tigris was once a sweet, sympathetic, and close cousin of Snow, who helped each other survive during the First Rebellion, but later they had a falling out, at one point when she thought Snow was dead, Tigris was happy. From the films alone, we have no clue about Tigris. Hunter Schafer has been cast as Tigris Snow in the film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, so it is clear this storyline will be expanded upon.
The Brutality of the 10th Hunger Games
As if the Hunger Games weren't brutal enough, the first ones early on were even worse. The 10th Games weren't much of a sport and had very little viewership, as the reaped children were hauled to the small crumbling arena in cattle cars and then dumped with each other and a pile of weapons, and it was over in a matter of hours with little spectacle.
Snow did much to make the Games more palatable, like including mentors to teach the children more ways to kill each other, but that didn't make it any nicer. Short, brutish, nasty, and amazingly even worse than the later Games we see in the main films, the 10th Hunger Games should be as horrible in the movie as it is in the book. It will be interesting for audiences to see the evolution of the games, and the depressing reality of morphing a brutal act into entertainment.
The Link Between Snow and White Roses
Throughout The Hunger Games film, Snow taunts Katniss with white roses, leaving them for her to find wherever she may be as a sort of calling card. He cultivates and nurtures them in his garden and seems to be the only living life that Snow cares about. We don't know why Snow loves these white roses more than any other life, but the prequel can show us the link between Snow and his most recognizable symbol.
This is already hinted at in the trailer, as Snow gives Lucy a white rose. This has some symbolic meaning to him...or maybe it does not until after Lucy.
What Happened To The Relationship Between Snow and Lucy
Thanks to the trailers that have been released for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it is clear that the prequel will focus on the romantic relationship between Snow and Lucy. Snow appears to fall for his mentee and does everything he can to help her win the games, promising her that he will get her out of there.
However, Snow's plans don't go according to plan, with head gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul not too happy with Snow's actions. Peter Dinklage, who plays Casca Highbottom, the Dean of the Academy and the creator of the Games, also taunts Snow at the end of the second trailer for the film. When Snow asks Highbottom where Lucy is, he replies that it is a mystery and that "mysteries have a way of driving people mad." The trailer then cuts to a visibly upset Snow, letting viewers know that the ending between him and Lucy might not have been all too happy.
How did the relationship between Lucy and Snow end? What did it do to Snow, and did it affect the way Snow treated Katniss and Peeta in The Hunger Games trilogy? All of these questions will likely be answered and have the potential to turn this entire film into the ultimate tragedy as audiences watch a hero become a villain.
Lucy Baird's Singing Skills
Music is an important aspect of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and has also played an important role in The Hunger Games trilogy. "The Hanging Tree", sung by Katniss in the initial movies, played an important role in communicating the theme of the film and Katniss' role in it. Given that Lucy is a part of the Covey and a performer, song, and music is sure to be a big part of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Lucy's singing and performance are what attract people towards her, highlighting her as a tribute and securing sponsors. Moreover, we will hopefully get to see where "The Hanging Tree" originated since the song is used as the soundtrack in the film's second trailer, with scenes of a lone tree included. It is clear casting Rachel Zegler, who wowed audiences with her musical talent in 2021's West Side Story that singing is a vital aspect of the movie.
Many other franchises like Maze Runner and Divergent have tried and failed to recreate the success of The Hunger Games. With the trilogy having ended back in 2015, fans have been eagerly awaiting another journey into Panem. Hopefully, the release of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will give us everything we want to see and more. The prequel is set to release on November 17, 2023.