The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a sci-fi dystopian adventure film. It serves as a prequel to The Hunger Games (2012) and is the fifth film within the Hunger Games franchise. It is set to be directed by Francis Lawrence, who has directed every Hunger Games film since The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is an adaptation of the 2020 spin-off prequel book written by series creator Suzanne Collins. Collins serves as an executive producer for the movie.
The film stars Tom Blyth as a young Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird. Josh Andres Rivera stars as Sejanus Plinth, a Hunger Games mentor who is friends with Snow. Game of Thrones alumnus Peter Dinklage plays Casca Highbottom. Hunter Schafer portrays Tigris, Snow’s cousin. Acclaimed actress and multi-award-winner Viola Davis portrays a new character named Volumnia Gaul who is known as the Head Gamemaker. Tony Award nominee Fionnula Flanagan is Grandma'am to Coriolanus Snow and Flora Li Thiemann portrays the tribute mentor Livia Carden. Mayfair Lipp, a politician's daughter is played by Isobel Jesper Jones and Honor Gillies plays a character named Barb Azure. The wider cast includes; Eike Onyambu, Konstantin Taffet, Burn Gorman, Scott Folan, Carl Spencer, Michael Greco and Daniela Grubert who all contribute to the unnerving world of this The Hunger Games prequel. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was released in cinemas on November 17, 2023.
