Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Reveals Digital On-Sale and Rental Coming Tomorrow

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to arrive on VOD much sooner than some had thought. On Monday, Lionsgate announced that the prequel film, which is set multiple decades before the events of the original Hunger Games trilogy, will be available on digital retailers beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, December 19th.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be available to buy for $24.99 and to rent for $19.99 on platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play and Vudu. A streaming release date has not yet been publicly announced.

What Is The Hunger Games Prequel About?

In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) 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), the girl 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's race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.

"I don't think it was really anything that we fought to keep in," director Francis Lawrence told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. "I think the trick was figuring out how to keep as much of the information in the story as possible, but we had to compress it because this is the longest book in the series. And so making sure that we can get it down to a feature-length, that was just the tricky part." 

Will There Be Other Hunger Games Spinoffs?

For years, The Hunger Games fans have campaigned for other expansions of the franchise's lore, including a deeper look at the 50th Hunger Games won by Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), and the 65th Hunger Games won by Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin). In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, franchise director Francis Lawrence hinted that he isn't opposed to the possibility, but any future chapters will probably have to be rooted in an idea from Collins herself.

"I liked being part of the series originally because the stories are great," Lawrence explained. "But what was always gratifying was that they were always about something. Suzanne always writes from a thematic foundation. The original ones were all about the consequences of war. [Songbirds and Snakes is] about the state of nature. That's what makes them feel rich and not superficial, and I think it's why they've stood the test of time, honestly... If Suzanne has another thematic idea that she feels fits into the world of Panem — whether that's with new people [or] familiar characters [like] Finnick, Haymitch, whoever — I'd be really interested in looking at it and being a part of it. But I don't have any pull of just going, 'I would love to do Finnick's games.' He's a great character, but what's the thematic underpinnings that make it worth telling and relevant?"

Will you be checking out The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes now that it will be available on VOD? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!