The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is set 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute. 

Decades 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 girls’ tribute from impoverished District 12. But Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favour. 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.

Led by Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid) as Snow, and Golden Globe winner Rachel Zegler (West Side Story, Snow White) as Lucy, the film’s cast includes Oscar winner Viola Davis (The Woman King), four-time Emmy winner Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), and Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City). Also look out for Kenyan-born newcomer Eike Onyambu as Tam Amber.

The fifth instalment in a multi-award-winning mega-franchise that’s grossed over $3 billion worldwide, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes was hailed by USA Today as “the best Hunger Games movie of them all” and named The Action Movie of the Year at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards, where Zegler won Action Movie Star of the Year. 

You can also binge the first four movies on Showmax.