Fans can return to the world of Panem withThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesnext November. Set as a prequel some 60 years before the first film, the movie will be packed with star power and focus on an entirely different aspect of the Games than the original films did. Thought you knew everything there was about a society that forces teenagers to fight to the death? Think again.
The newadaptation was confirmedbefore the book was even released in 2020. At that time, the director of the previous three films,The Hunger Games: Catching FireandThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2,Francis Lawrence, was slated to return to direct the new installment. While the cast everyone knows will not be returning, as Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) were not born when this story takes place, fans will be treated to recognizable names and ancestors of our favorites.
Thecast includes Viola Davisand Peter Dinklage, with Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler in the leading roles of Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow (yes, that’s a young President Snow) and Lucy Gray Baird, respectively.
Based on a book over 500 pages long, there will inevitably be cuts for time. Here are the things we hope to make it into the film.
The 10th Hunger Games' Brutality
If viewers thought the originalHunger Gamessaga was brutal, just wait until they see the prequel. The book takes place during the 10th Hunger Games as the Capitol struggles to find an audience for their event. Of course, it isn’t at all what fans of the series have come to know about the Games. After being reaped in the early days of the event, tributes are put into a cattle car, driven across the country to the Capitol, and then dumped into a crumbling colosseum with a pile of weapons. It would all be over in a matter of hours, with no spectacle and very little viewership.
Related:The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Everything to Know About the Hunger Games Prequel
To make the Games more palatable, some time is added to the experience, but it is nowhere close to what is happening by the 74th Hunger Games. Rather than immediately start the event, they are placed in the old monkey cage at the Capitol Zoo. People can come and stare at them, giving them more reason to engage. This does result in a tribute killing their mentor. Mentors are also a new feature, but they are Capitol teenagers, not victors. There is a tour of the stadium, which results in dead tributes after “rebels” rig explosive devices to go off during the televised event. The tributes aren’t even being fed half the time, so it is a miracle any of them make it to the Games at all.
That isn’t to say the original trilogy of books isn’t brutal. Those who read the books know just how violent Clove’s death was in the first book or how frightening some mutations truly were. However, much of this was played down for the films, likely to keep the PG-13 rating so the target audience could buy tickets to watch them. That doesn’t have to be the case withThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Part of showing all of these events just as they’re described in the book reinforces the themes and shows how much worse the Games once were and why they became the spectacle we’ve become accustomed to. If any of this is diminished, the themes immediately lose their value.
Snow’s Cheating During the Games
Part of the appeal of the prequel book is that it follows an18-year-old President Snowas he begins his reign of terror in the world. Is he like that the entire prequel? No. But, the events that lead up to his first poisoning are essential in understanding what causes his character development to skew in such a direction.
Related:The Hunger Games: The Movies' Symbolism and How it Stands Apart
One of the most pivotal scenes in this development is when he sneaks a compact full of rat poison to Lucy Gray before she goes into the Games. She uses it to kill other players, ensuring she becomes the victor. This is later discovered, and Snow is banished to District 12 as a Peacekeeper, seen as scum. He had everything to prove with Lucy Gray as a tribute, and he cheated to ensure he would get the scholarship he needed to attend college.
This isn’t the only time he cheats to ensure Lucy Gray wins. After an incident with snakes that results in one of his classmates being attacked because they weren’t familiar with her smell, he sees them being prepared to be dropped into the colosseum. He puts a cloth with his tribute’s scent on it in the tank, which means she is the only one not attacked when the snakes are introduced to the Games.
These instances show Snow for who he is, rather than as a sympathetic villain with a tragic backstory, so they’re important to be included. While not the only events that show just how much of a villain he was always destined to be, these are key in understanding why he moves on to the methods of retaliation and removal utilized later in the series and foreshadows how he became President of Panem.
While you wait, rewatch the original films and see if you agree withourHunger Gamesranking.
