What are the Hunger Games for?
That’s the question posed to a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) in the new trailer for the prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which was released on Tuesday.
The upcoming film takes place 64 years before Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteered as tribute in The Hunger Games, and decades before Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem.
In The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Snow is the last hope for his failing lineage, which has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. He is assigned to be a mentor to Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12, in the 10th Hunger Games. When her charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates and the pair unites to turn the odds in their favor.
But it won’t be an easy task. “Your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors,” warns Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), dean of the Academy, in the trailer.
Snow’s biggest adversary seems to be the cruel and creative Head Gamemaker, Volumnia Gaul, played by Viola Davis, who has a penchant for serpents and a desperate need for vengeance.
“Fueled with the terror of becoming prey, see how quickly they become predator?” she laughs, as she releases hundreds of snakes into the Hunger Games arena.
The film also stars Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow, cousin and confidante to Coriolanus; Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, the mentor to a tribute from District 2 and a close friend of young Snow; and Jason Schwartzman as Lucky Flickerman, the official host of the 10th Hunger Games.
Watch the full trailer and see character posters below:
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will be released on Nov. 17.