I Genuinely Can't Watch "The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes" The Same Way After Reading These BTS Facts

    Although The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the longest The Hunger Games book, director Francis Lawrence never wanted to split the adaptation into two movies, saying, "We got too much backlash from splitting up Mockingjay."

    Nora Dominick
    by Nora Dominick

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Joe Maher / Getty Images / BuzzFeed

    🚨 There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes! 🚨

    1. First, author Suzanne Collins called director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson at the end of 2019 to tell them, "Surprise, I'm almost done with another book," which shocked them because after the Mockingjay movies, "there were no plans for any other books."

    the cast on the red carpet
    Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images / Lionsgate

    "So that was a really nice, pleasant surprise," Francis told BuzzFeed. "And then, the beginning of 2020, right before the pandemic, Nina and I read it, fell in love with the new story, and the world and what the books are really all about. We knew we wanted to be a part of it and wanted to start the adaption process."

    2. Although it was "brought up," there was never a thought to split The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes into two movies, as they did with Mockingjay. Francis said, "We got too much backlash from splitting up Mockingjay."

    scene where a man is in a hospital bed as someone visits and then two characters with weapons in the city
    Lionsgate

    From the start, Francis made it clear he preferred if they adapted Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as one movie, but make it the longest Hunger Games film. He added, "I mean, not a lot of people mentioned [splitting it into two parts]. It was brought up, like, 'You could do it because it's a long book,' and I said, 'No way.' So, I said, 'No, you know what, I would rather do a long movie, and have it be one, full satisfying piece."

    3. When it came to casting, Francis and Nina wanted to follow a similar format as the original The Hunger Games movies: young, up-and-coming, and/or unknown actors coupled with "veteran legacy actors."

    closeup of two of the characters inside a large headquarter
    Lionsgate / Via youtube.com

    Francis explained, "The casting process was really exciting. I mean, I will say sort of the background to it, Nina and I wanted to do what was done with the original movies, which is, bring this core of people that are relatively unknown, fresh talent to the front, and then mix them with veteran legacy actors. So that's why we have Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman."

    4. Rachel Zegler was the first person on Francis's list to play Lucy Gray Baird. He had previously seen her in West Side Story and thought she would be perfect for this role.

    her character standing in the middle of a crowd that is dirty
    Lionsgate / Everett Collection

    "She was my first choice to play Lucy Gray," he began. "I was in London, scoring a previous film, and she was in London starting prep on a movie. So we had a great meeting, and I knew she'd be perfect."

    5. Francis didn't know of Tom Blyth's work before casting him as young Coriolanus Snow, but as soon as he watched his audition tape he was "blown away."

    his character holding a flower and saying, welcome to the captitol
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    "Tom, kind of honestly came out of the blue for me," Francis explained. "I was not aware of his TV show [Billy the Kid], not aware of him and his work. He read for the part and I was in Germany scouting [locations], and his tape came in and I was just blown away. We had seen some pretty good people, but he just blew everybody out of the water."

    6. In particular, Francis loved how Tom echoed Donald Sutherland's performance from the original movies and immediately made you believe he was a young Snow.

    closeup of his character and then sutherland in the original, both are wearing flower lapels
    Lionsgate / Via youtu.be

    He elaborated, saying, "Tom had the great blue eyes that you sort of believe could be Donald Sutherland's later. He's great at his craft. He's Juilliard trained. I knew he could do everything emotionally we needed him to do on this character's journey. But, he was also very sophisticated and intelligent. So to believably be the guy that turns into Donald Sutherland, you have to have that kind of intelligence and sophistication."

    7. Rachel and Tom did a chemistry read together before they were both officially offered the roles. For the chemistry read, they performed one Lucy Gray and Coryo scene, but the big thing was Francis had Rachel sing to Tom.

    tom holding rachel's chin in the woods for a scene
    Lionsgate / Everett Collection

    "I had Rachel sing 'Wildwood Flower' [by The Carter Family], this kind of a capella version, which is a song very much in the style of the music from the movie, to Tom. I remember having her sing this really beautiful, a capella version of that song and having him watch her sing, and her singing to him, we knew that the chemistry was there, and it was gonna work," Francis said.

    8. Viola Davis was Francis's first choice to play Dr. Gaul. Before filming began, Viola and Francis talked a lot about Gaul's character, how she grooms Snow to become who he becomes, and Francis talked about the themes of the books and movies that made other "caliber of actors" like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, and more sign on to be part of the previous films.

    her character asking snow what are the hunger games for and he answers, to punish the districts
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    Francis recalled, "Viola was my first choice to do this. I just think she's one of the best actors of all time. So I figured if I could convince her, that would be fantastic. So she and I had a great conversation. She was not that educated in the world of The Hunger Games. She'd obviously heard of them, but had not read all the books and seen all the movies. We talked a lot about the themes of the books and the theme of this movie, and why the caliber of actors have decided to join the franchise, which she understood. We talked a lot about how her character connects to the themes of this book, what themes she kind of represents, what she's grooming Snow to become, what she believes in, and all of that. It was great because we joined forces on our vision for the character. By the time we were shooting, you kind of get to sit back and feel lucky that you have Viola Davis there doing her thing and being fantastic."

    9. Lucy Gray and the Covey's music was inspired by "'20s, '30s West Virginia" folk and country music. In particular, the Carter Family was a big inspiration for the music in the movie.

    the characters playing and dancing in a dark room
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    "When I first heard that Suzanne was almost done with the book, she didn't want to tell me what the story was, but she did say there was a big music element to it, so I was quite intrigued. And then, when you read the book, she's written the lyrics to all these songs throughout. Suzanne suggested I go watch this Ken Burns documentary on country music, which I did, and loved, and fell in love, specifically, with the kind of genre of the music that we were going for."

    10. In fact, Maybelle Carter and June Carter Cash inspired Lucy Gray's performances and music. In particular, Maybelle was known for having a guitar that was almost too big for her, which is a design they took for Lucy Gray.

    lucy playing in the film and then maybelle playing on stage
    Lionsgate / John Byrne Cooke Estate / Getty Images / Via youtube.com

    "So June Carter, who is the daughter of Maybelle Carter from the original Carter Family, was kind of a big inspiration," Francis began. "And also Maybelle inspired the guitar Lucy Gray plays in the movie. Maybelle was small, and she had this giant guitar that looked too big for her. So that's what we sort of designed for Lucy Gray."

    11. When it came time to take Suzanne's lyrics for Lucy Gray and the Covey's songs from page to screen, the team enlisted the help of Dave Cobb, a Nashville producer and songwriter.

    dave in the living room with other artists performing songs and behind the scenes filming of rachel playing on a stage
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    Francis elaborated, saying, "We started developing that and worked with Dave Cobb, a great Nashville producer, songwriter, who wrote the chord progressions and the melodies."

    12. Rachel sang all of Lucy Gray's songs, including "The Hanging Tree," live on set. So, all of the performances you hear in the movie were done live and nothing was pre-recorded.

    behind the scenes of her filming with a guitar in the field
    Lionsgate / Via youtube.com

    "We had Rachel sing on them and she fell right into the authentic sound we were going for," Francis explained. "And what was great, is she's so good, she sang everything live on set."

    13. The moment when Lucy Gray bows at her Reaping ceremony was a conscious nod to Katniss's bow from The Hunger Games. It wasn't a moment that was written into the script, but something Francis and Rachel came up with while filming.

    side by side of the two characters giving a bow
    Lionsgate / Via youtu.be

    "What we tried to do was less trying to connect Lucy Gray to Katniss. In that, we were always trying to find whatever moments we could, whether there's sort of Easter eggs and things that just sort of build into the origins of the other movies," Francis began. "So, you can now kind of go back to the other movies and look at them differently. Katniss had that sort of curtsy bow at the Reaping, and it was not written in the book or the script that Lucy Gray does this. I came up with the idea with Rachel for her to do it on the day. I just thought that's a kind of cool idea to think that Katniss had heard through generations that there was a girl in the 10th Hunger Games that could've done this thing, and she's doing something she's heard about. So we were constantly trying to find things like that to do in this movie."

    14. Francis's other favorite Easter egg is when you can spot a bow and arrows when Coryo enters to arena to find Sejanus, as an homage to Katniss.

    katniss using a bow and arrow
    Lionsgate

    "I have one little nod, there's a piece where Snow is actually in the arena and we see — because nobody uses a bow and arrow — we see a broken bow with a quiver of arrows that he sees. That was not in the script. So that was something that we added. Anytime we could sort of give little nods to iconic elements from the original stories, we tried to do it," he said.

    15. Getting to meet a young Tigris and learn about her family relationship with Snow was one of Francis's favorite things from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. He loved how this prequel now changes the way you see Tigris when she pops up in Mockingjay – Part 2.

    closeup of her  sitting in a room at a desk
    Lionsgate / Everett Collection

    "Honestly, one of the things that I really love about this, is if you were just to watch the first movies and you meet Tigris, you would never in a million years know that Coryo and her were almost like brother and sister," Francis began. "That they had such love between them and were so warm and grew up together, and shared so many experiences. That's what I love about this movie is you can watch it and learn so much about so many things, and then go back to the other movies and look at characters, moments, lines of dialogue, in completely different ways after experiencing this story. Also, working with Hunter [Schafer] and Tom's great. I mean, I love Tom, but Hunter's amazing."

    16. When it came to bringing another Hunger Games to the screen, Francis didn't want the 10th annual Hunger Games to feel repetitive or too similar to the 74th and 75th Hunger Games we see in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. So, they really embraced that it would feel very different.

    the different arenas and games locations
    Lionsgate / Via youtu.be

    He explained, "One of the tricks is when you've done a game, I didn't do the first movie, but there were games, so when we went into Catching Fire, you want to do it all differently. Of course, the arena looks different and there's different kind of things that happen, but you just want to make sure that it feels different. Like, the beginning of the games in Catching Fire doesn't have the same energy as the beginning of the games in the first movie. And it's the same here. We're used to the games being outside. Part of what was really fun to me is when you go down in the tunnels, and people are running, and it's lit with electric light, it's just a whole different feel. That was really exciting to me that we got to do something really different."

    17. One of the ways they achieved this was by leaning into "how rudimentary" the 10th annual Hunger Games is, in comparison to the games in the first movies. Francis explained, "There's no fancy elevators bringing people up. You're just brought out at gunpoint. It's dirty, there's rubble, there's crumbling walls, and some people are dragged out and some people are shoved out. Also, the buzzer, you don't even have the cannons."

    closeup of lucy walking into a building of rubble
    Lionsgate / Via youtu.be

    He continued, saying, "And also, when there's death, there's nowhere to hide the bodies. You're not hidden behind the trees in the jungle, and there's no hovercraft pulling the bodies out. It was the first stuff we shot. It started to feel much more grounded and realistic and I felt like you definitely felt the death toll in a much different way then you do in the other games because the fantasy side of it is stripped away."

    18. Dr. Gaul's laboratory was filmed on location in Berlin in an actual crematorium that production took over for a few days to turn into Gaul's lab.

    characters walking in a fancy building
    Lionsgate / Via youtube.com

    "It's a very beautifully built crematorium. We got to take it over for six days or something, and put her lab equipment in there and bring the cylinder in [for the snakes] and all that kind of stuff. It's an incredible space," Francis said. He added, "A little morbid, let's say, being there, which is sort of fitting for Gaul anyway."

    19. When it came to designing the look of Panem at this point in history, Francis and production designer Uli Hanisch researched Reconstruction Era Berlin and looked at "Berlin after World War II and how you rebuild."

    large fountain in the city square, people in uniform in a church-like building, and two people walking up stairs in a manicured yard
    Lionsgate / Via youtube.com

    "I think one of the greatest things when I read the story was thinking we're sort of, in essence, making a period piece to the original stories," he explained. Speaking about researching Reconstruction Era Berlin for the look of Panem, he said they used the idea of, "The rubble in the streets and building back together the classic buildings, the new buildings, which start to lean towards the Panem we're familiar with."

    20. Looking at the 1940s and 1950s for the design of Panem also inspired the look of the costumes in the movie. Francis said they leaned into slightly "more sophisticated" makeup, hair, and wardrobe from that time period, instead of seeing the "wackiness" of the styles in the Capitol from the original Hunger Games movies.

    the current characters dressed in their costumes
    Lionsgate / Via youtu.be

    He explained, "We decided, 'Hey, let's do that too, for wardrobe.' So that we're not quite in the kind of wackiness of the original Hunger Games. You're still getting some of that color, but we're leaning into the '40s and the '50s for hair, makeup, wardrobe. So, it's a little more sophisticated. It was really fun to build that out. Tigris's wardrobe is also really fun. That's all [costume designer] Trish Somerville working on that because Tigris has that kind of fashion background, obviously, you know who Tigris becomes in the later stories."

    21. Unlike The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, this movie doesn't start and end with the Hunger Games. There is a whole story that happens once the games end, and Francis said it was "one of the challenges" when adapting this book, alongside "telling a villain's origin story."

    two characters in a lake
    Lionsgate / Everett Collection

    He explained, "Most people are conditioned to think that these movies end with the end of the games. We had to transition while keeping the story going in the right way. I think it's also, honestly, about setting the table for people coming into the movie, right? So when you see trailers and you start to see the countryside, and when you get to the games until the end of the games, just in your head, you know, Oh, I haven't seen her on stage yet. I haven't seen them walking through the meadow yet. I haven't seen these. So there's an expectation of there being more, which I think we wanted to prepare people for because, again, for the other movies it's the games, they end, the movie's done."

    22. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book has a very open ending when it comes to what happens to Lucy Gray, and that mystery was something the filmmakers always wanted to embrace when it came to the adaptation.

    the two characters
    Lionsgate / Via youtube.com

    "We always stuck by the fact that we wanted to embrace the mystery of Lucy Gray, like we never waffled on that in any way," Francis said. 

    23. And finally, Francis's favorite sequence to film in the movie is the final moments with Lucy Gray and Snow in the woods. He said, "I just think Tom did a fantastic job. It's where I felt the story really kind of coming together and really working. That's the kind of filmmaking that I love. So, I'm very, very proud of that."

    they're walking in the woods and then tom is aiming his gun
    Lionsgate / Via youtu.be

    Francis added, "I think that's partly what I love about it is that with very little dialogue, with behavior and emotion, and performance, and the visual of him in the forest, you see him really start to form and become the Snow we know. For emotional reasons, I think it was really exciting."

    The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is in theaters now.

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