Hunger Games director brings young Coriolanus Snow to life in new film

Article content

By the time he got to the end of directing Mockingjay — Part 2, Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence was left wondering if he was ever going to get another chance to tell a story set in the film franchise based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling dystopian fantasy book trilogy.

Article content

Then, four years after the last film in a series, which centred on Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen’s fight against the tyrannical Coriolanus Snow, Collins rang up to tell Lawrence about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes — a new story that would recount the origin of Snow.

Article content

“That was super exciting,” Lawrence, 52, says in a Zoom call from Los Angeles. “I love a villain origin story because you have to take a character who everyone knows and loves to hate and try to get an audience behind them and rooting for them from the beginning.”

Lawrence says that he relished the challenge of trying to tell a prequel that would introduce a younger version of the sinister President of Panem (played by Donald Sutherland in the first four films).

Article content

Article content

“I think, honestly, the thing that excited me the most was also the biggest challenge,” Lawrence says. “I had to get people rooting for him, but at the same time layer in the breadcrumbs and seeds that show his darkness and need for power, so that when he goes dark it feels authentic and truthful.”

After all, bad guys don’t start out as the bad guy.

Songbirds and Snakes, which opens in theatres Friday, takes place 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games and follows a young Snow (Billy the Kid’s Tom Blyth) as he mentors Lucy Gray Baird (Golden Globe winner Rachel Zegler) — a Tribute from the impoverished District 12 — in the 10th annual Hunger Games.

As he struggles to follow his most righteous instincts to help Lucy, Coriolanus falls under the spell of the villainous head gamemaker Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis).

Article content

The film also stars Josh Andrés Rivera (as Snow’s classmate Sejanus Plinth), Euphoria breakout Hunter Schafer (as the future dictator’s cousin Tigris) and Peter Dinklage (as schoolteacher Casca Highbottom).

“We’re not apologizing for Snow; we’re showing him before he’s become fully formed,” Lawrence says.

Lawrence knew about Zegler from her breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s revamp of West Side Story. But casting a teenage Snow was a difficult task. He zeroed in on Blyth after watching the Juilliard-trained actor’s self tape while he was scouting locations in Europe.

“I was able to see how he’d become Donald Sutherland-like as he got older,” he says. “But after watching him, I knew he’d be able to tap into the emotional arc of the character’s journey.”

Article content

His only advice to Blyth was to not try and copy Sutherland’s Snow note-for-note. “I didn’t want a Donald impression. I just wanted him to do his own thing,” he says.

Lawrence knows that a lot of the advance chatter around the film has been among fans trying to draw parallel’s between Zegler’s Lucy Gray and Lawrence’s Katniss. But he says that the biggest difference between the original series and Songbirds and Snakes is that the lead of this new movie is Snow.

“We’re watching a villain’s origin story; this is not Lucy Gray’s story,” the filmmaker says. Still, the contrasts between Lucy Gray and Katniss help deepen the ties between the movies and its heroines.

“I think Lucy Gray is the anti-Katniss in a way. The traits that they share is they’re both smart and they’re both survivors, but the way they go about doing things are entirely different,” he says.

Article content

Whereas Katniss was a reluctant face of the rebellion against Snow, Lucy Gray embraces the spotlight and sees it as a way to survive the Games. “Lucy is a performer and an extrovert and a people person, while Katniss is a hunter, an introvert. So they’re different, but both are smart and both are survivors.”

To strengthen the link between the two heroines, Lawrence inserted an impromptu scene in Songbirds and Snakes in which Lucy Gray mockingly bows at her tormentors in much the same way Katniss does in The Hunger Games.

“I thought it could be neat to have her do something that Katniss did and might have heard about,” he says. “I love how people latched on to that from the trailer.”

While Katniss’ story was neatly wrapped up at the end of Mockingjay — Part 2, the conclusion of Songbirds and Snakes hints at the possibilities of many more tales set in the world of Panem.

“I would come back in a second. But it’s all up to Suzanne. I said the same thing after Mockingjay,” Lawrence says. “If she came up with something, I’d love to come back because … once she figures out what she wants to say, she comes up with a story that’s within the world and it’s always interesting.”

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hits theatres Nov. 17.

[email protected]

X: @markhdaniell

Article content