Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes Poster Art Highlights Breathtaking Spectacle Of Lucy Gray & 10th Hunger Games

Warning: Spoilers ahead for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

New artwork for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes showcases how the Games become a spectacle in the prequel adaptation. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes focuses on the 10th Hunger Games, 64 years before the 74th, which Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark win together. Katniss and Peeta experience firsthand how the Capitol treats the Hunger Games like a full-fledged reality television spectacle despite the many horrors and violence of the annual event.

@17thandOak’s artwork, commissioned by Lionsgate Studios and Poster Posse, shows how the 10th Hunger Games in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes begin their transformation into a spectacle. Check out the artwork below:

The artwork shows Lucy Gray Baird and other tributes in the bombed out arena of the 10th Hunger Games. She is seen standing above them, wearing her colorful dress, while the other tributes brandish weapons as they rush toward her. The spectacle is captured by the towering statue and buildings surrounding the arena, with the buildings covered in countless television screens and Capitol iconography.

How The Capitol Transforms The Hunger Games Into A Spectacle

Under the supervision of Dr. Volumnia Gaul and the insights of a young Coriolanus Snow, the 10th Hunger Games institute many changes that serve as the foundation for what they will become for Katniss, Peeta, and all future tributes. One such change is making Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman the first-ever host. Narrating and breaking down the Games in a play-by-play style immediately makes the event feel more like entertainment. It is a change that sticks, with Lucky’s descendant Caesar Flickerman becoming a future host as the Games become mandatory viewing for all in the Districts.

Another significant change in the 10th Hunger Games is the ability to send water or other resources to tributes who receive enough support from viewers. This is the basis for the sponsorship system that becomes vital to a tribute’s chance of winning. Snow uses it to help Lucy Gray win, and Haymitch Abernathy will use it to help Katniss and Peeta win many years later. This also makes the Capitol citizens more invested in watching and supporting certain tributes, and making them more desensitized to the brutal violence they are witnessing.

The concept of sponsors is tied to the changes brought on by the mentorship program. In the 10th Hunger Games, Snow and other students at the Capitol’s Academy are the mentors. In future Games, the mentors became former Hunger Games victors instead of Capitol students, another way of forcing citizens from the Districts to continue fighting among themselves instead of against the Capitol, including those who had already won their Games. These changes in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes turn the Hunger Games into a spectacle that allows the Capitol to better control the Districts for years to come.