The official trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is here.

Based on the 2020 novel by Suzanne Collins and serving as a prequel to the hit sci-fi action franchise (conceived by Collins’s renowned book trilogy), the film takes decades before the name Everdeen Katniss was first mentioned.

Set 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games (2012), the plot focuses on a young Coriolanus Snow, his relationship with Hunger Games tribute Lucy Gray Baird, and the events that eventually led him on the path to becoming the tyrannical leader of Panem.

Rising British actor Tom Blyth (Benediction, Billy the Kid) plays a young Snow alongside Golden Globe winner Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, Shazam! Fury of the Gods) as Lucy.

The rest of the cast includes Emmy winner Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, Cyrano), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Josh Andrés Rivera (West Side Story), Burn Gorman (Game of Thrones, The Offer), Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), MacKenzie Lansing (Mare of Easttown, The Deuce), Fionnula Flanagan (Waking Ned, The Others), and Oscar-winner Viola Davis (Fences, The Woman King).

Directing duties once again fall to Francis Lawrence after he helmed previous Hunger Games outings Catching Fire (2013), Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015).

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will arrive in UK cinemas on 17 November.