While the tale of Katniss Everdeen ended in 2015 with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, the Hunger Games franchise isn’t done providing cinematic entertainment. A film adaptation of the 2020 book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which takes place decades before the main Hunger Games saga, is on the way. This story focuses on Coriolanus Snow, the eventual president of Panem, in his younger years, and today it’s been revealed who will play Snow in the Hunger Games prequel.
Tom Blyth, who stars in Epix’s Western series Billy the Kid as the title character, has been tapped to play young Coriolanus Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Blyth follows in the footsteps of Donald Sutherland, who played Snow in the Hunger Games film series based off the original literary trilogy by Suzanne Colins, who also penned the prequel book. Francis Lawrence, who helmed all but the first of the Hunger Games movies, is sitting back in the director’s chair for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and here’s what he told People about Blyth’s casting in the upcoming movie:
Coriolanus Snow is many things — a survivor, a loyal friend, a cutthroat, a kid quick to fall in love, and a young man ambitious to his core. Tom’s take on the character showed us all the complex ambiguities of this young man as he transforms into the tyrant he would become.
Producer Nina Jacobson added that Tom Blyth’s performance as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ main protagonist “will both fulfill and disrupt everything you think you know about Coriolanus Snow,” while Erin Western, Lionsgate’s president of production, described the actor as “an explosive rising talent whose mesmerizing and charismatic presence” made him “perfect” for the lead role. Blyth is the first actor to be cast in the Hunger Games prequel, and his other credits include Benediction and The Gilded Age.
64 years ahead of the first Hunger Games book/movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow as he mentors a tribute for the 10th annual Hunger Games. We know that Snow will one day become the tyrannical ruler of Panem and will clash with Katniss Everdeen and the rebellion strengthened by her actions during her Hunger Games outings, but in this story, it’s up to Snow to make sure that Lucy Gray Baird, who hails from District 12 is ready for the event that pits adolescents in a fight for survival that (traditionally) ends with only one left alive. Now that Tom Blyth has been selected to play Snow, ideally we’ll learn who’s playing Lucy (who Nina Jacobson is particularly excited about) in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes soon.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will hit theaters on November 17, 2023, the same day that John Krasinski’s IF and the yet-to-be-officially-titled Trolls 3 come out. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on the prequel’s progress.