Snakes, Lies, and Poison
Everything you need to know before watching the new Hunger Games movie
- The story takes place 64 years before the first Hunger Games movie, so around the 10th Hunger Games. The Capitol has just won a war against the Districts that lasted months and are now trying to recover their assets and reestablish a functioning society.
- There are a couple of familiar characters from the original trilogy: Tigris Snow and her cousin Corialanus Snow. In the Hunger Games series, not much is known about Tigris and she only appears in the story a little bit. In this new installment, much more is revealed about Tigris. The other character that we see in the original series is Corialanus Snow, better known as President Snow.
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a young Corialanus Snow as he tries to bring his family back to their former glory before the war. It focuses on his mentoring of a girl tribute from District 12, named Lucy Grey Baird.
- This is the first time that before the Games, the tributes are shown to the press and given interviews. They are also slightly more prepared, as this is the first year that tributes have mentors, though they are Capitol children and not victors from the Districts.
- If you are a fan of The Hunger Games, then you definitely know about “The Hanging Tree”, which is an important song in District Twelve’s history. In this prequel, the backstory behind the song is explained through some shocking revelations.
- If you haven’t been following The Hunger Games and want to watch the movies before seeing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, they are available on a variety of platforms including Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and of course at the Mid Continent Public Library.