Hunger Games Prequel Trailer Finally Takes Us Back to Panem

A new Hunger Games movie? We volunteer as tribute to watch.

The official trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was recently released April 27, giving fans a glimpse inside the prequel story based off Suzanne Collins‘ 2020 book of the same name.

Viola Davis, who plays Dr. Volumnia Gaul, kicks off the trailer by introducing the “creator of the Hunger Games themselves” Dean Casca Highbottom, portrayed in the film by Peter Dinklage.

Highbottom goes on to speak at the 10th annual Reaping Ceremony, meaning Songbirds & Snakes will take place 64 years before Panem—the fictional country the series is set in—would get to know the story of Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of the Hunger Games franchise.

As Highbottom goes on to explain that two children “from each District” will “fight to the death in the Hunger Games,” fans get their first look at Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12.