The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was released on November 17, 2023, starring Rachel Ziegler, Tom Blyth, and Viola Davis.

This movie takes place in Panem years before when the previous Hunger Games movies took place. It follows the story of future president Coriolanus Snow during the tenth annual Hunger Games. Coriolanus is the son of General Crassus Snow, who was a general in the first rebellion of the Capitol and the Districts and died during the battle.

Once Coriolanus turned 18 he was selected to mentor a tribute in the 10th annual Hunger Games. The games are held yearly, with children from the first 12 districts. Each district has something to provide; for example, District 1 is luxury items and District 2 is masonry and defense. The people are picked via a lottery system and they are to participate in a televised death match.

Coriolanus is assigned to a girl in District 12, which is the smallest and poorest district known for coal mining. The girl’s name is Lucy Gray Barid, and Coriolanus gains her trust, leading them to start caring for each other more. However, as the movie goes on, there are a bunch of twists and turns that make you not want to look away. Later in the film trilogy, Hunger Games we see that Coriolanus is the president at the beginning of the movie and was arguably a bad one due to what happened in the past, which caused his downfall as president.

Rachel Zegler, who plays Lucy Gray, is a singer and songwriter raised in New Jersey and starred in other popular movies such as Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story (2021). She is also going to be Snow White in the upcoming remake of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. Tom Blyth, who plays Coriolanus, is an English actor born in Birmingham and starred in popular shows and movies like The Gilded Age (2022) and Benediction (2021). 

This movie was highly recommended and many people had many good things to say about it. Angelica Vera ‘25 watched the movie and said, “The Hunger Games was one of the best movies I’ve ever watched. It perfectly portrays the downward spiral of President Snow and displays how he  turned into the man he is in the movies we all know and love today.”

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was a very captivating and refreshingly new movie. You don’t even need to watch the trilogy of The Hunger Games before watching this, which is great for anyone who hasn’t seen the movies.