The Hunger Games Is Coming Back to the Cinema

The Hunger Games universe is expanding.

In 2020, Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games trilogy published a prequel to her wildly successful books. A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 65 years before the original series and details the rise of President Coreolanus Snow, the main antagonist in The Hunger Games.

Image: Lionsgate via Variety

Now this wildly colorful and action filled book is being made into a movie of the same name, to be released this November. With a stacked cast including Hunter Schaeffer, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Rachel Ziegler, and Tom Blyth, this film is bound to be one of the big blockbusters of the year. A new trailer teases the story.

One of the reasons that the Hunger Games books were so wildly popular was the detail with which the world of Panem was built, including the powerful effect that fashion can have in swaying what people think, choose, and desire. Clothing plays an important role in A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, just as it did in The Hunger Games. 

Image: Lionsgate via Variety

Trish Summerville, who was the costume designer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has returned to the Hunger Games universe to design the wardrobe for the upcoming film. Because the prequel takes place only ten years after the end of a civil war, the economic position of the country and therefore the frivolous fashion trends that are such a memorable part of the original series do not exist, at least not to the same extent. 

Still, Collins always describes clothing, using fashion as a way to convey important messages about characters. The single most talked about piece of clothing in A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is Lucy Gray Baird’s (the female character and love interest of the leading man) rainbow dress. The dress, which might have been something hideous and gaudy if created by a lesser costume designer, has a subdued rainbow skirt made of tufts of tulle.

Image: @katcystephan via Twitter

The most interesting part, however, is the upper half, which looks almost like a dirndl, with straps laced to the corset top with leather string. The decoration is a beautiful pattern of flowers and snakes, which is very fitting for Lucy Gray’s character. More importantly, the dress as a whole is decisively old fashioned, giving the strong impression that it comes from a period before the dystopian world of the Hunger Games. 

We cannot wait to see this film, and what other symbolism it has in store.