New Bonus Footage from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

We've finally got the official look at the bonus footage from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes featured at the re-release of The Hunger Games in theaters this week! 

In this extended first look at the new film featuring new footage plus Rachel Zegler's rendition of The Hanging Tree, director Francis Lawrence explains how the origin story depicts a young Coriolanus Snow being "groomed to become the man he becomes."

Producer Nina Jacobson says in the clip, "Snow's never met anybody like her [Lucy Gray]. That romance between them makes Snow question everything he believes."

The clip also showcases Zegler's performance of The Hanging Tree, a song Jennifer Lawrence sang in 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 that made its way to the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It's just one of several songs from the book that Zegler sings in the new film.

Composer James Newton Howard says, "Hanging Tree is back in a completely different iteration and treatment." Adds director Francis, "Here, we see Lucy Gray coming up with it for the first time."

Dave Cobb is the film's executive music producer, which features tunes inspired by British Isles music and Southern music mashed together for the dystopian setting.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is in theaters on November 17. Rachel Zegler's "The Hanging Tree" single is available Friday, October 20th

New Interviews With The Cast of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Did the cast of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes read The Hunger Games book series growing up? In new, previously recorded interviews from the set, Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, and Josh Andrés Rivera were asked this question. Here are their answers. 

New 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' 10th Hunger Games Propaganda Poster released for New York Comic Con

Are you headed to NYCC? You may be able to snag one of the brand new 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' 10th Hunger Games Propaganda Posters!

Look for uniformed Academy students who will hand out roses and posters at the event. You may find them roaming outside the Javits Center & inside near the Scholastic Booth. May the odds be ever in your favor!!

New Lucy Gray Baird Still and Interview With Francis Lawrence From Total Film

Total Film has revealed a new still of Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, along with an excerpt from an interview with Francis Lawrence, available in their November issue, which hits newsstands on Thursday, October 12.

"We start in a very different place with Snow," director Francis Lawrence tells Total Film magazine"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."

The new prequel takes place 64 years before The Hunger Games as we meet an 18-year-old Snow (Tom Blyth) as he’s assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) for the 10th annual Hunger Games. 

The future tyrannical president is initially alarmed, given that Lucy is a tribute from impoverished District 12. But when she defiantly sings during the reaping ceremony, he spies an opportunity to turn the odds in their favour – her by surviving the deadly combat, and him by growing the Games from their grubby gladiatorial roots into a show-stopping event full of theatre and spectacle.

The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opens in cinemas on November 17.

A Capitol News Special Report from Lucky Flickerman

It’s the return of Capitol News! A new in-world promo video dropped today featuring a Special Report from Jason Schwartzman as 10th Hunger Games host, Lucky Flickerman. 

All anyone could talk about on social media was the Panem Map that was on screen at the end of the video as part of Lucky's weather report.

This map looks about the same as The Hunger Games exhibition official Panem map. You can check out the history of Panem Maps, both fan made and official in our gallery. 

The second Lucky Flickerman video came out on October 4th:

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for an important update from Lucky Flickerman on the Capitol’s disturbing rabies hoax.

Those of you living under rubble may have missed this new Capitol News ‘Weather With Lucky’ clip.

Lucky weighs in on which one of The Academy's finest scholars will win this year's coveted Plinth Prize