The British-born actor plays a young Coriolanus Snow in the prequel opening Nov. 17.
Billy the Kid may have aired its midseason finale episode last Sunday on MGM+ (the streaming service formerly known as Epix), but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to wait until next year to see series star Tom Blyth again. Starting Nov. 17, Blyth will be looming large at theaters and drive-ins everywhere in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to the immensely popular Hunger Games movies starring Jennifer Lawrence.
Based, like its predecessors, on the YA novel by Suzanne Collins, the new film has Blyth cast as a younger version of Coriolanus Snow, the authoritarian overlord played in The Hunger Games (2012) and three sequels by Honorary Oscar winner (and Lawmen: Bass Reeves co-star) Donald Sutherland.
As Lionsgate Films notes in a press release: “Years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, eighteen-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 [Rachel Zegler of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake], the female tribute from impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy Gray’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.”
Of course, we already know how Snow will turn out, right?
Here is a preview for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
In case you missed it: Tom Blyth visited the C&I Studio last year to talk about his starring role in Billy the Kid prior to the Season 1 premiere. More recently, we spoke with series creator and showrunner Michael Hirst and executive producer Donald De Line about Season 2. Production on the remaining Season 2 episodes is expected to resume soon now that the SAG strike has been settled.
Here is a taste of what viewers have in store for them.
