The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a 2023 American dystopian film produced and directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, based on the 2020 novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. It serves as a prequel to The Hunger Games (2012) and the fifth installment in The Hunger Games film series. The film stars Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Peter Dinklage, Josh Andrés Rivera and Viola Davis. In the film, Coriolanus Snow (Blyth) is called on to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler), a Games tribute, as he seeks to restore his family's prosperity in Panem.
Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer confirmed future The Hunger Games films would be produced if Collins wrote further installments. In 2019, an adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was jointly announced with the novel and official development on the film began a year later, with Lawrence returning as director and Lesslie and Arndt serving as screenwriters. Blyth and Zegler were cast in May 2022 and principal photography began that July and lasted until that November, with filming locations including Wrocław, Berlin and Leipzig.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes premiered at the Zoo Palast in Berlin on November 5, 2023, and was released in the United States on November 17. The film grossed $361 million worldwide against a production budget of $100 million. It received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, is set to be released on November 20, 2026.
Plot In a war-ravaged Panem, Coriolanus Snow is selected to be a mentor for a tribute in the 10th Annual Hunger Games. The winning tribute's mentor is to be awarded the Plinth Prize scholarship, which Snow hopes to use to restore his family's prosperity. Coriolanus is assigned Lucy Gray Baird from District 12, who makes an impression when she sings to the crowd during the televised reaping ceremony. Coriolanus earns Lucy Gray's trust while accompanying her to the Capitol Zoo, where tributes are publicly caged. Fellow mentor Arachne Crane is killed by her tribute Brandy after taunting her, and Snow tries in vain to save her while Brandy is shot.
The day before the Games commence, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus tour the game arena. Rebel bombs explode, killing several tributes and mentors, including the President's son, Felix. After saving Coriolanus from falling debris, he gives Lucy Gray rat poison and points out several tunnels that have opened from the explosions. Following the attack, District 2's tribute, Marcus, attempts to escape the games. He is captured by Peacekeepers and strung up in the arena, enraging his friend & mentor, Sejanus Plinth. The Games commence the next morning, with Lucy Gray surviving the initial bloodbath and reuniting with Jessup, District 12's male tribute. During the games, Sejanus bribes a Peacekeeper and sneaks into the arena to ceremoniously sprinkle breadcrumbs on Marcus's body. Disturbed by this defiance, Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul recruits Coriolanus to bring back Sejanus. The two are attacked by a tribute whom Coriolanus kills before escaping the arena.
Jessup, who has contracted rabies, attacks Lucy Gray, but Coriolanus convinces his mentor to send him water, causing Jessup to fall to his death. After Lucy Gray kills District 11 tribute Dill, Dill's partner, Reaper, lays out the tribute's corpses in the center of the arena, and covers them with a Panem flag in a gesture of defiance. Dr. Gaul interrupts the broadcast to announce that a swarm of genetically engineered snakes will be unleashed to annihilate the tributes in revenge for Felix's death. Coriolanus slips a handkerchief with Lucy Gray's scent into the tank of snakes, ensuring that they will not attack her.
Afterwards, Dean Casca Highbottom accuses Coriolanus of cheating, having found the handkerchief and recognized the compact filled with poison that Lucy Gray used. Highbottom sentences Coriolanus to becoming a Peacekeeper, and Coriolanus bribes an officer to transfer him to District 12. Sejanus, who is disillusioned with the Capitol's ideals, joins him. In District 12, Coriolanus and Lucy Gray reunite. Coriolanus secretly records Sejanus's plans to support the rebels. He later confronts Sejanus, Spruce, Billy Taupe and Mayfair. In the ensuing confrontation, Coriolanus fatally shoots Mayfair, and Spruce kills Billy Taupe. Spruce hides the guns, but he and Sejanus are hanged for treason after Coriolanus's report reaches the Capitol.
Lucy Gray and Coriolanus flee into the woods with the intent to leave Panem. At a small cabin, Coriolanus finds the hidden weapons tying him to Mayfair's murder. Lucy Gray, having seemingly become distrustful of Coriolanus and suspecting his involvement in Sejanus's death, disappears into the woods. Coriolanus searches for Lucy Gray, but is bitten by a snake that was hidden under his mother's scarf that he gave her. Paranoid and enraged, Coriolanus shoots at Lucy Gray, but she escapes. Subsequently, Coriolanus disposes of the guns into the lake near the cabin, and then, with no remaining witnesses, he returns to District 12.
Coriolanus is sent to the Capitol, where Dr. Gaul reveals she procured his pardon as well as a scholarship to the Capitol University. Sejanus's parents, unaware Coriolanus caused their son's death, make him their heir. Dean Highbottom tells Coriolanus that Lucy Gray's fate is unknown, and he conceived the Hunger Games while he was drunk, but Coriolanus' father made them real, and Highbottom has regretted it ever since. Coriolanus poisons Highbottom's drug stash, killing him and beginning his rise to power.
Cast Tom Blyth as Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow, a mentor for the upcoming 10th Hunger Games and future president of Panem Dexter Sol Ansell as young Coriolanus Archival audio of Donald Sutherland as the older President Coriolanus Snow, from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, is played at the end of the film. This was Sutherland's final performance as Coriolanus Snow, as he died on June 20, 2024. Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12 and a member of the Covey, a traveling musician group Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow, Coriolanus's older cousin and confidante. She would go on to become a stylist in the Games and an ally to Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, played in that film by Eugenie Bondurant. Rosa Gotzler as young Tigris Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman, the host of the Hunger Games Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom, the dean of the Academy Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, Coriolanus' best friend and fellow mentor Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, Head Gamemaker of the Hunger Games Fionnula Flanagan as Grandma'am, Coriolanus and Tigris's grandmother Burn Gorman as Commander Hoff, a Peacekeeper
Additional mentors Ashley Liao as Clemensia Dovecote, a classmate and friend of Coriolanus, and a mentor to a tribute from District 11 Max Raphael as Festus Creed, a classmate of Coriolanus, and mentor to a tribute from District 4 Zoe Renee as Lysistrata Vickers, a classmate of Coriolanus, and mentor of the other District 12 tribute, Jessup Aamer Husain as Felix Ravinstill, a classmate of Coriolanus, son of the president of Panem, and mentor to a tribute from District 11 Lilly Cooper as Arachne Crane, a classmate of Coriolanus and a mentor to a tribute from District 10
Additional tributes Nick Benson as Jessup, the male tribute from District 12 alongside Lucy Gray Mackenzie Lansing as Coral, the female tribute from District 4 and leader of "the Pack". Coral's role from the books was expanded to fit the film's plot. Cooper Dillon as Mizzen, the male tribute from District 4 Kjell Brutscheidt as Tanner, the male tribute from District 10 Sofia Sanchez as Wovey, the young female tribute from District 8
Dakota Shapiro plays Billy Taupe Clade, Lucy Gray's former love interest and a former member of the Covey. Isobel Jesper Jones plays Mayfair Lipp, the daughter of District 12's mayor, a rival of Lucy Gray, and Billy Taupe's new girlfriend. George Somner plays Spruce, a rebel citizen from District 12.
Other members of Lucy Gray's travelling musician group, the Covey, include Vaughan Reilly as Maude Ivory, Honor Gillies as Barb Azure, Eike Onyambu as Tam Amber, and Konstantin Taffet as Clerk Carmine Clade.
Michael Greco and Daniela Grubert appear as Strabo Plinth and Mrs. Plinth, Sejanus' parents, while Carl Spencer and Scott Folan appear as Smiley and Beanpole, two peacekeepers sent by the Capitol to District 12.
Production Development
In February 2015, nine months before the release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer revealed that they were "actively looking at some development and thinking about prequel and developments possibilities" for The Hunger Games film series, similar to what Warner Bros. was doing with the Harry Potter franchise, re-launching with the then-upcoming Fantastic Beasts films. The studio reiterated the decision in December 2015. That same month, Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss Everdeen in the films, when asked about the idea of spin-offs, she stated, "I think it's too soon. They've got to let the body get cold, in my opinion." She also revealed she would not be involved in the spin-offs. In August 2017, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer expressed interest in more stories in the franchise, but only with the approval of the series' author, Suzanne Collins.
In June 2019, Joe Drake, chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, announced that the company was working with author Collins with regards to an adaptation of the jointly announced novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. By April 2020, Collins and Lionsgate confirmed that plans were underway for the film's development, with Francis Lawrence confirmed to direct, after doing so for the prior three films in the series since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The screenplay was written by Michael Arndt and Michael Lesslie, with Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson as producers alongside Lawrence. On July 24, 2020, Lawrence confirmed that the script for the film was "progressing really well" and stated that after reading the story, he loved what it was about and how relevant it was. Concerned over the book's length, Lawrence briefly considered to split the film in two parts like he did with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, but abandoned the idea to do so, due to his regrets over that decision. Jacobson felt that the finished film had a "daunting" length but feels that it "really goes by so fast". Collins, in addition, would serve as an executive producer on the film.
Lesslie said that he had many conversations with Collins while writing the script, where the author reiterated that the movie had to have the philosophical discourse of state of nature represented by the characters' personality. Collins also insisted that everything regarding Lucy Gray would be restricted to what Snow could witness, particularly to keep the mystery of her eventual fate. He noted an underlying theme was how young people came of age in this post-apocalyptic world, and particularly in a Capitol with the "filthy allure of wealth" that was comparable to The Talented Mr. Ripley and Succession, in having "that weird kind of hyperactive status drive, and status insecurity of people with privilege". Regarding Snow's journey, Lesslie realized that the story shifts with acts of violence, to the point that Snow starts "as horrified by the violence as we are" only for both the audience and Snow to be desensitized by the film's end.
Casting