“See Him Break Bad”: Hunger Games Prequel Director Explains How Coriolanus Snow Is Different From Donald Sutherland’s Version

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes director Francis Lawrence has explained how the prequel’s Coriolanus Snow differs from the version played by Donald Sutherland in the original movies. Set 64 years before the events of the originals, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will depict a young Snow (Tom Blyth) being assigned as the mentor to a defiant tribute from District 12 played by Rachel Zegler. Far from the tyrannical leader he will eventually become, Blyth’s Snow is a struggling heir to a failing Capitol house who sees his chance to advance his own fortunes via his new charge.

Speaking with Total Film, Lawrence explained how the version of Snow audiences will meet in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is yet to become the sociopathic version eventually toppled from power by Katniss Everdeen. Suggesting the prequel starts “in a very different place with Snow”, he admitted that part of the movie’s fun lies in audiences watching him “break bad.” Check out his comments below:

We start in a very different place with Snow. We see a young man who’s struggling, and who’s part of a family that’s lost their fortune. He’s putting on an act that he still has money, still has status. He also starts in a much more positive place than you would imagine. It’s part of what’s fun about the story, that you see him break bad.

Why Snow Will Not Be The Only Thing Different About The Hunger Games Prequel

It is a widely held belief among filmmakers and audiences alike that villains often make for the most interesting characters. While the challenging journeys faced by young heroes such as Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss, or her prequel counterpart played by Zegler, may often form the bulk of a movie’s narrative, audiences still derive much enjoyment from seeing what drives some of cinema’s most memorable villains to their own dark destinies.

Yet while The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will provide exactly this kind of backstory for Coriolanus Snow, his character’s own evolution will not be the only thing that differentiates the prequel from the original movies. Set in a post-war Capitol still struggling to reclaim its influence over the Districts it controls, the world of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is far from the more refined and polished dystopian future that audiences are already familiar with.

Similarly, the Hunger Games themselves are considered as a more brutal gladiatorial exercise rather than the heavily produced public spectacle they later become. Yet while The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will offer audiences a very different glimpse at Panem before Katniss and the rebellion it inspired, it will also serve to offer deeper insights into both the tyrannical regime and its villainous leader that she helped to overthrow.