Lionsgate released the first image from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and unfortunately, it’s off to a bad start. The highly anticipated prequel to the acclaimed Hunger Games film series follows a young President Snow, then known as Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow (Tom Blyth), and the District 12 tribute he’s selected to mentor, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). The cast will also feature Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, and the movie will see the return of director Francis Lawrence, who guided all the previous Hunger Games adaptations except the first.
Despite the bulwark of talent coming to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the online reception to the film’s first look has been mixed. While many are excited to see Blyth and Zegler in character as young Snow and Lucy Gray, several others have wondered why, primarily, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes looks romantic in nature. They joke that the image, which depicts Coryo and Lucy Gray lounging in a natural setting, seems more fitting for modern clothing ads than a recently war-torn, dystopian setting. Comments online have also levied criticisms that the romantic tenor of the new movie does not match their expectations for a story that remains under the grim oppression of Panem.
These criticisms about the first image and the numerous jokes that young Snow looks like Eminem’s Slim Shady persona have all contributed to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes's lackluster start. If the movie suffers from genre confusion and a lack of tone consistency in its characters and setting, it could lead to a disappointing reception. However, this does not necessarily need to be the case.
The Hunger Games Prequel Will (Hopefully) Be Better Than The First Look Suggests
Even with the skeptical response to the Hunger Games prequel's image, little else is set in stone from an audience perspective. There are still multiple positive elements stemming from the cast, crew, and source material that could turn out a good movie. Among these factors is Francis Lawrence’s track record as a Hunger Games director and the potential of the original story. After all, even with the criticisms of the romantic tone of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' first look, the original movies also told a story that was fraught with interpersonal tension and a strong romantic subplot yet did not need to sacrifice any of its political and action-packed intrigues to support it.
Even if The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes's timeline and the story do end up striking a different tone than the previous Hunger Games movies, that also does not mean that it will make for a poor film. As long asThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes can balance its romantic aspects along with the tragedy and consistent characterization that must accompany Coryo’s transformation into someone who will become the franchise’s notorious President Snow, the film still has the full potential to be a stand-out addition to the series.
Despite the human instinct to jump to conclusions based on very little information, it’s important that audiences not judge a book by its cover or a movie by its first image. With both audiences and the market for dystopian fiction’s evolution over the last several years, there is a good chance that the changes of the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes adaptation from book to movie, and to the world of the Hunger Games in general, may work well. As long as the noted incongruities in the released material can be synthesized into the movie by its context, fans of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes may have few criticisms upon its release in 2023.