The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes from The Hunger Games marks the long-overdue return of true film! Even though I appreciate Marvel a lot, The Hunger Games is far more important to me than the MCU. Due to the original movie's well-timed limited Netflix release, which coincided with the start of the prequel film's marketing push, the franchise has recently come roaring back to life. Without further ado, let's analyze the teaser trailer that went viral online!
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This prequel follows a young Coriolanus Snow (played by Tom Blyth) long before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem. We first meet him at the Capitol Academy. There he’s vying for a university scholarship. The trailer opens with the televised reaping for the 10th Annual Hunger Games.
The Games are changing this year, thanks to the introduction of Dr. Volumnia Gaul. She is the evil Head Gamemaker played by Viola Davis. In this video, Davis cuts a striking figure that wonderfully captures the quirky yet unsettling Gaul.
Snow recognizes at this point the tense nature of his connection with Dean Casca Highbotom, the original Hunger Games creator played by Peter Dinklage. Snow is tasked with failing the female tribute from District 12 right away. The Snow family is actually poor and struggling to survive in a Capitol that is still at war, unlike what the trailer implies. If Coriolanus wants to keep his family alive, he must win the Games with his tribute.
Fortunately for him, Lucy Gray Baird played by Rachel Zegler is unlike other tributes. Lucy Gray, a member of a nomadic tribe that made its home in District 12, is rebellious during the reaping. While Katniss' mocking curtsy in this trailer is similar to the one she gave the Gamemakers in Catching Fire, that is the only similarity between the two. Lucy Gray, a performer at heart, is here to transform the Hunger Games as we know it. Katniss, on the other hand, detested the spotlight.
We have a brief peek of the other tributes in the back of a truck before cutting to Snow and Lucy Gray's first encounter. His signature roses make their debut, a gift from his grandmother's priceless garden to Lucy Gray. Their relationship develops as Snow
Next up we meet Lucky Flickerman, an ancestor to Stanley Tucci’s popular Hunger Games host from the original films. Who knew Caesar Flickerman was a nepo baby? Lucky is the very first host of the Hunger Games, part of an effort by Capitol leadership to raise viewership. After ten years, interest in the Games is declining – at least until the interviews begin turning the massacre into the most macabre reality television show on Earth.
Hunter Schafer appears in a brief scene as Tigris, Snow's adored cousin and a significant figure in his ultimate downfall decades later. And as the trailer gets going, it becomes clear how basic these early Hunger Games were. There are no sophisticated traps or a beautiful venue. Instead, the memorials are thrown into a deserted stadium with no access to any natural resources. The Cornucopia is still there, but it is now a heap of weapon-filled debris rather than a chic source of presents that can save lives.
