Last month, Lionsgate offered an update to the status of its Hunger Games prequel film, The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes. It didn't provide much in the way of detail, merely announcing that Francis Lawrence is once more bringing Panem to life and that cameras are rolling. Now, though, we know that Tom Blyth is starring as the younger version of Coriolanus Snow.
The film focuses on Snow well before he takes power as the tyrannical president (and played by Donald Sutherland in the original movies). At 18 years old, he's looking to restore honor to his lineage which has fallen on hard times in the aftermath of a war in the Capitol.
As a student, he is hoping to take part as a mentor in the upcoming 10th annual Hunger Games but is alarmed after he's chosen to help the girl tribute from the impoverished District 12, Lucy Gray Baird. When she stuns all of Panem with her defiant singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow begins to think they have a chance and does all in his power to assure her victory.
"Coriolanus Snow is many things – a survivor, a loyal friend, a cutthroat, a kid quick to fall in love, and a young man ambitious to his core," says Lawrence. "Tom’s take on the character showed us all the complex ambiguities of this young man as he transforms into the tyrant he would become."
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbird And Snakes will be out on 23 November next year.