As the prequel to one of the highest grossing film franchises of all time, the announcement of the film adaptation for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” excited many fans, especially those whose hearts were originally captured in the 2010s by the original Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins.
Directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, this film tells the story of Coriolanus Snow, who eventually becomes Panem’s president and Katniss Everdeen’s tyrannical enemy. The movie depicts the 10th Annual Hunger Games, taking place 64 years before “The Hunger Games,” and Katniss Everdeen’s appearance. This movie shows the early development of the games as viewers know them from the later movies, with the mentor system just being created as young Coriolanus Snow was assigned to mentor Lucy Gray, the girl tribute from District 12.
Many fans were excited for the prequel’s release, with some thinking that it would answer their unresolved queries about the series and some just excited to see one of their favorite series continued.
“I want to know what caused President Snow to turn into the person that he is,” freshman Emma Onorato said.
“As a long-standing Hunger Games fan, ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,’ did not disappoint,” senior Kaitlyn Bell said. “My expectations going into the movie were high, but I had a feeling this film would be very different from the original series. As I expected, ‘Ballad’ was much more violent and had a certain eerie and dark tone to it, just like the book. I think the movie missed a lot of things from the book, but it did an amazing job of depicting the characters and truly making you feel sorry for those competing in the games. For being a prequel, it might even be better in some aspects than the original movies.”
In August 2011, Lionsgate CEO, Jon Feltheimer, expressed interest in creating a spin-off of “The Hunger Games” film series. By April 2020, Suzanne Collins had already been working with the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group for one year to create a film adaptation for her book, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” The making of the film was confirmed by the two groups, along with Francis Lawrence, who is the director of the three previous films in the series.
While the idea for creating the movie and getting the right people to agree to work on this film was fairly easy, complications past this did arise. Lawrence had concerns about creating the adaptation because of the lengthy duration of the novel, fearing that the movie would have to be split into two parts. Despite these difficulties, fans continue to show support for the new film.
“I am obsessed with ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,'” freshman Kaitlyn Washington said. “How they depicted Snow and the way it related to the first film, with the reference to Katniss and the song she sings by the hanging tree, is excellent. I think this is the best movie of the whole series and the storyline is amazing. I think the way they showed the making of the Hunger Games and the comparison of movies is so good and the turn of events that takes place along with the character development is amazing.”
