The Hunger Games prequel is about President Snow and fans already hate it

22 January 2020, 14:55

By Sam Prance

Suzanne Collins will release The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes later this year and a movie is currently in the works.

Suzanne Collins has just revealed the concept for the upcoming The Hunger Games prequel but fans are not happy about it.

Last year, Suzanne Collins confirmed that she was a writing a new prequel to her best-selling The Hunger Games trilogy. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to come out on May 19th this year. If that weren't enough, Lionsgate teased that they're already working on a film. The news immediately broke the internet as fans became excited about the franchise continuing.

READ MORE: A Hunger Games prequel book and movie are in the works with Suzanne Collins

However, now that Suzanne has revealed that the prequel will tell the backstory of President Snow, fans are disappointed to say the least. They're worried about it humanising a villain instead of delving into the origins of a hero from the franchise.

What will The Hunger Games prequel be about?

Yesterday (Jan 21), Entertainment Weekly published the first official excerpt from the new book and confirmed that it's about President Snow in the past. Describing him, they wrote: "a teenager born to privilege but searching for something more, a far cry from the man we know he will become. Here, he’s friendly. He’s charming. And, for now anyway, he’s a hero."

Suzanne previously confirmed that the book is set in Panem 64 years before the first trilogy takes place. "The reconstruction period 10 years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days – as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet – provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity.”

Fans initially theorised that the prequel would be about Mags who features in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. She would have been alive during the events of the novel and like Katniss, she won the Hunger Games as a teenager. In Catching Fire she takes part in the Quarter Quell as an 80-year-old, representing District Four with Finnick Odair.

Given that Mags was a hero like Katniss and Snow is a villain, fans are understandably shocked by the announcement that the prequel will focus on Snow and they have been taking to social media to complain. One fan wrote: "you’re telling me I waited YEARS for a new hunger games book just for it to be a president snow origin story".

Another fan tweeted: "Of all the characters in The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins decided to humanise President Snow. Like we need another story about some tortured white boy. I hate it here."

As it stands, Suzanne is yet to respond to the backlash. We shall update you if she does.

What do you think of the concept of the prequel?