The Games Begin in Dramatic Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Trailer

May the odds be ever in your favor in terms of getting a ticket to The Hunger Games prequel.

Lionsgate released the new trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes on Sept. 20, winding back the clock more than six decades before Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute and ultimately sparked a rebellion in Panem.

The trailer opens with an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow—who fans know as the future ruler of Panem and is played by Tom Blyth—on a mission to restore his family's once powerful position years after a devastating civil war. As such, he is tasked with mentoring District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) for the 10th annual Hunger Games.

"What are the Hunger Games for?" Viola Davis' character, Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul, asks Coriolanus in the trailer, to which he replies, "The Hunger Games—they're to punish the Districts. Those tributes don't have a choice."

One thing that's clear: The mentors aren't exactly there to offer guidance. As Peter Dinklage's character, academy dean Casca Highbottom, puts it, "Your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors."

However, once Coriolanus forms a connection with Lucy, he reevaluates his position and their fates—telling her, "I am gonna get you out of here."

But if it were only that simple. As Coriolanus and Lucy join forces, Lionsgate's synopsis states, their "race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake." And viewers will have to check out the movie to see how things play out.

"Fueled with the terror of becoming prey," Dr. Gaul says, "see how quickly we become predator?"

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes—which also features Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman and more stars—comes eight years after the last Hunger Games film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, was released. In addition to picking up from Suzanne Collins' book series, the upcoming film has major behind-the-scenes connections to the franchise with Francis Lawrence, who helmed three of the four Hunger Games movies, returning to direct. 

As for how Jennifer feels about the new movie?

 

"I am so excited about the prequel," she told Viola during a conversation for Variety's "Actors on Actors" series in December. "Nothing has ever made me feel so old, by the way, that they're already remaking those movies." 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hits theaters Nov. 17.

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