“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!” is how the greeting that starts off the Hunger Games goes, but in Lionsgate’s new prequel Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, whose title is a mouthful, the focus is on young love and not so much the teenaged bloodsport of the original novels in the smash hit series by Suzanne Collins.
Lionsgate just dropped the first image from the upcoming Hunger Games film, showing Zegler and Blyth in the roles of the lovers present in the book, Lucy Gray Baird and Coriolanus Snow. The image is of a far different hue than that of Katniss Everdeen staring determinedly at the camera, trying to figure out best how to stay alive in the vicious world of the books. The first image Lionsgate has released, which shows Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird resting against Blyth’s leg as Coriolanus Snow, is a romantic and pastoral image that’s about as far from Collins’ world of a violent teenage battle royale as anyone could get, but that’s not to say things will stay that way for long. Zegler, having come from West Side Story, is no stranger to a world of young love on the one hand and violent teenage conflict on the other.
The Hunger Games prequel was put full steam ahead by Lionsgate almost as soon as Collins had announced she was revisiting the world of her series. Of course, her idea of a prequel focusing on the young Coriolanus Snow who’d grow up to be the vicious President Snow so aptly played by Donald Sutherland certainly caused more than one fan to scratch their heads. The series, though, was a blockbuster powerhouse and casting announcements came cascading in from Blyth as the younger Snow to Zegler, Game of Thrones fan favorite Peter Dinklage, to the recent announcement of Viola Davis as a villain.
Francis Lawrence is returning to direct the pair in what looks to be a readapting of the material, focusing just as much attention on Zegler’s newcomer to the franchise, Lucy Gray Baird, as Blyth’s villain-to-be, Coriolanus Snow. If the first image is anything to go by, it’s going to present a world of tragedy since audiences already know what’s in store for a few of these characters, and the title, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes doesn’t seem too hopeful, either. Centered around the tenth games in the series, with young love on the line, may the odds be ever in their favor.
Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to be released on November 17, 2023.
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Source: Lionsgate/Twitter
