With just over a year to go before The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to hit theaters, we finally have more than a single still that looks more like a romantic comedy than the dystopian thriller it will be. As the upcoming 2023 movie continues to shoot in Europe, an official video from the set of the movie has just come out.
The official TikTok account released a nearly minute video of one of the movie’s stars, West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler, giving us a set tour of sorts on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Check it out:
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I’ll admit, after the first image of the Hunger Games prequel came out, my interest waned for the book adaptation, but this video just got me super excited for the movie again. Of course, The Ballad of Songbird of Snakes is based off Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name which follows President Snow before he led Panem. He is just a teen, and in the above video, we see him in his curly hair hanging around Panem back in the day.
Rachel Zegler brings a ton of personality to the video, making it look like a coming-of-age teen comedy, when in fact the end product will be a lot more dire and dramatic. At the beginning of the video, she goes up to the movie’s Snow, played by Tom Blyth, who looks like he’s already in character.
In the TikTok, Zegler takes us to video village, where it looks like Nina Jacobson is keeping a close eye on the footage as she has with all the other Hunger Games movies. You can also catch a glimpse of Peter Dinklage on set, who will play Casca Highbottom, dean of the Academy Snow attends. However, it looks like he was rehearsing rather than performing considering he was just in a t-shirt.
Zegler also introduced us to Josh Rivera, who was also her costar in West Side Story and is reportedly her real-life boyfriend. Rivera will play Sejanus Plinth, a close friend to Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Zegler didn’t look to be in any costume in the video, and is unlikely to be in the shots being filmed in the set video. But as she says in the video, she’ll be playing Lucy Gray Baird in the movie. Lucy is the District 12 tribute who Snow is chosen to mentor for the 10th Hunger Games.
If you’ve yet to read The Hunger Games prequel, Lucy is so much different than Katniss, folks. Actually, the prequel will be different from the main franchise we know and love for a lot of reasons. As the franchise continues, Jennifer Lawrence has given her blessing to the new cast, advising them to “have the best time” which looks to be the case.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to hit theaters on November 17, 2023. We’ll keep you updated here on CinemaBlend as we learn more about the project.