The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Stars Tom Blyth and Josh Andrés Rivera Talk Bonding Before Production

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes arrives this weekend, giving viewers a chance to dive into a whole new era of Panem. The film is anchored by a younger version of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), and a number of allies and adversaries in his orbit — including Sejanus Plynth (Josh Andrés Rivera), a fellow student and mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. ComicBook.com recently attended a virtual press conference for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, where Blyth and Rivera spoke about their offscreen rapport, which helped them embody the relationship between their respective characters. 

“I mean, we were pretty much the first two cast members to arrive, I think,” Blyth began.

“We got pretty lucky in that way, I feel,” Rivera echoed.

“Yeah, we were the earliest scenes up at the very beginning, and so we were in Berlin, Josh and I doing our fittings and stuff together,” Blyth continued. I think we met at a fitting for the first time”

“We did,” Rivera continued. “Well, I was having, I went to say hi to [director] Francis [Lawrence], I don’t think I had met him in person. You were just getting done with a meeting as well.”

“He had two back-to-back meetings where he did a meet and greet with us, and I came out and you were going in and we were kind of like, ‘Oh!’” Blyth added.

“But we did have the luxury of hanging out a lot during pre-production,” Rivera argued, before Blyth revealed, “We went to see some movies. We went to a Leon Bridges gig together.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Rivera added. “So it was kind of nice. We had the real luxury of having that chemistry already be there a bit when we first had to film, because the first scene we shot actually was when Coryo has to rescue Sejanus in the arena, which if you remember is it’s quite vulnerable and intense, and to have that be your first day is a bit intimidating. But it was definitely really nice that we had the luxury to kind of get to know each other beforehand. I think that manifested a good amount personally.”

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.” 

Are you excited for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is currently set to be released in theaters on November 17th.