While the tale of Katniss Everdeen ended in 2015 with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, the Hunger Games franchise isn’t done providing cinematic entertainment. A film adaptation of the 2020 book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which takes place decades before the main Hunger Games saga, is on the way. This story focuses on Coriolanus Snow, the eventual president of Panem, in his younger years, and today it’s been revealed who will play Snow in the Hunger Games prequel.
Tom Blyth, who stars in Epix’s Western series Billy the Kid as the title character, has been tapped to play young Coriolanus Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Blyth follows in the footsteps of Donald Sutherland, who played Snow in the Hunger Games film series based off the original literary trilogy by Suzanne Colins, who also penned the prequel book. Francis Lawrence, who helmed all but the first of the Hunger Games movies, is sitting back in the director’s chair for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and here’s what he told People about Blyth’s casting:
Producer Nina Jacobson added that Tom Blyth’s performance as The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ main protagonist “will both fulfill and disrupt everything you think you know about Coriolanus Snow,” while Erin Western, Lionsgate’s president of production, described the actor as “an explosive rising talent whose mesmerizing and charismatic presence” made him “perfect” for the lead role. Blyth is the first actor to be cast in the Hunger Games prequel, and his other credits include Benediction and The Gilded Age.
More to come…