The Hunger Games prequel adaptation, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, has cast the young version of Coriolanus Snow, the future fascist who becomes Katniss Everdeen’s nemesis in the original Hunger Games trilogy.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid) is set to play the young Coriolanus, who Donald Sutherland portrayed in the Hunger Games trilogy film adaptations, the first of which premiered in 2012.
Buy the Book
Siren Queen
Blyth is best known for portraying William H. Bonney (a.k.a. Billy, pictured above) in the Epix Western series, Billy the Kid. He has also appeared in an episode of The Gilded Age.
“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,” director Francis Lawrence in a statement. “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 Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place over sixty years before the events of author Suzanne Collins’ first Hunger Games book, and follows young Coriolanus before he becomes a ruthless dictator.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to premiere on November 17, 2023.
