A few years have passed since the last Hunger Games film was on screens but given the popularity of the franchise there’s obviously more things in the works. A prequel story is on its way this year in the form of a new book scheduled for a release a few months down the track, however snippets of the story are starting to be released.
Lionsgate have previously made comments about being ready to bring more Hunger Games films to the big screen, so no doubt they’ll be more than ready to start looking at translating the new story into a film.
It appears this time around we’re jumping back 64 years from where the existing films take place, a mere decade into the rule of Panem. Surprisingly the new story has been announced to focus on the character Coriolanus Snow, for those not up to speed on the setting this is the man who later becomes the cruel tyrant President Snow, portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the existing films.
The book is titled ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’, and from the details released so far Snow is a long way away from the man he eventually becomes, and a hero in this story. No doubt the novel will work as a setup for future stories which detail his fall from grace and journey towards his eventual Presidency.
There have been some mixed reactions online to the announcement, the choice to take the chief villain and turn him into a hero (for now) has if nothing else, gotten people talking about the series
again, which will likely turn into interest when the new books comes out.
However it’s an interesting choice given the number of storytelling opportunities the setting offers, and the many characters that could have been selected as the new protagonist. Given the book is just starting to be promoted, and there are no doubt some twists and turns hidden away things may not all be as they seem, and where the story goes we’ll have to wait and see.
