Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, & 'The Hunger Games' Prequel Cast Stun at NYC Premiere (Photos)

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Whether you’ve already rushed to the theater to catch the highly anticipated “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” or you’re waiting until you’re back home for the holidays to catch the anticipated prequel film with your family, now is the perfect time to binge the iconic trilogy.

A.D. Amorosi With Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” looking to continue its reign at the top spot of the box office, it’s time to consider the most sonorous secret to its success: its original, bluegrass-tinted song selection, including a theme written and produced by Dave Cobb (with lyrics from “Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins), and sung soulfully by the film’s star, Rachel Zegler.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes.Directed by Francis Lawrence, the prequel is set 64 years prior to the first film and depicts the events that led Coriolanus Snow (originally played by Donald Sutherland) to become the tyrannical leader of Panem.Tom Blyth plays the young Snow, who is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) in the 10th Hunger Games.It’s the fifth film in series, following 2012’s The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One and Part Two.There are currently no announced plans for another film in the franchise. Producer Nina Jacobson, who has overseen all five Hunger Games films, has said she is uninterested in making another instalment unless author Suzanne Collins writes another story.“If [Collins] had a story in this world with something she wanted to talk about, something to explore, then great,” Jacobson told Polygon in summer 2023.

Rachel Zegler and Josh Andrés Rivera had a fun time on the set of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes!

Rachel Zegler and Josh Andrés Rivera are among Hollywood’s hottest couples, as they are currently sharing the big screen in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Viola Davis is sharing details about her look in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

EXCLUSIVE: Music has continually been a facet of Lionsgate‘s $3 billion Hunger Games franchise going back to ditties from Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Lorde, and with today’s theatrical release of Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the studio teamed with Spotify for a multi-faceted partnership that shines a spotlight on music’s legacy in the Suzanne Collins franchise.

EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate‘s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is looking at a Thursday night between $5.75M-$6M after showtimes that began at 3PM.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Welcome back to Panem! “The Hunger Games” franchise is officially revived with the release of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” a prequel film set many years before the rise of Katniss Everdeen. Based on the Suzanne Collins novel of the same name, the prequel centers on a young Coriolanus Snow as his experience mentoring District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird in the 10th Hunger Games shapes him into the villain fans of the franchise know well.

Tom Blyth is sharing what his co-stars Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, and Jason Schwartzman taught him while working on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Hunter Schafer is describing the challenges of her role in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

The book The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, written by Suzanne Collins, has been adapted for the screen by director Francis Lawrence, alongside screenwriters Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt. The film delves into the chillingly formative years of Panem, a society not yet inured to the brutality of its central spectacle. This prequel, starkly contrasting its YA predecessors, morphs into a harrowing adult political thriller, unraveling the genesis of the Hunger Games with a disturbingly poignant lens — that is, when it can get out of its own way.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes might be dressed up like a prequel in its early roots story of villain-to-be Coriolanus Snow, and some might think that Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird is just an early days Katniss from District 12.

Rachel Zegler and Josh Andrés Rivera are opening up about working on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as a couple!

Olivia Rodrigo is contributing her music to the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes with “Can’t Catch Me Now.”

The cast of the new movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes gathered together on the red carpet for the L.A. premiere and we have all the photos!

Olivia Rodrigo performs the theme song for the new movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and she has dropped the music video for the track!

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes cast had a lot say about their upcoming movie!

The Hollywood News Run by film fans for film fans! The Hollywood News Last night, the London premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes took place at the famous BFI IMAX in the Waterloo area of town – quite literally the biggest and one of the best screens in the country. The cast and filmmakers arrived on the red carpet to talk about the new film ahead of its release later this month and we have some footage featuring the two main stars, Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth to share.This new film is set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem.The film follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, ahead of its UK release on 17 November.The movie – which is a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy, based on the novel series by Suzanne Collins – is set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteers to partake in the Hunger Games, a dystopian fight to the death between children. The premise focuses on the origin story of the future president, Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth.With a budget of $100 million, the generational impact of the original trilogy, and famous faces including Viola Davis (The Help, The Suicide Squad), Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) and Peter Dinklage (Game Of Thrones, Avengers: Infinity War) anticipation around the prequel was high.However, the critical response to the first screenings has been largely negative.