The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on TF1: Our Review

TF1 is broadcasting The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes on Sunday, November 22, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler take us back to Snow’s younger years in this prequel. Here’s our review.

Before becoming the president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow must guide a Hunger Games contestant. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, airing on TF1, goes back to the meeting between the young heir, played by Tom Blyth, and Lucy Gray Baird, played by Rachel Zegler.

During the tenth Games, Snow is appointed mentor to this District 12 tribute. The public’s interest in Lucy Gray gives him a chance to restore his fallen family’s fortunes. Their alliance takes shape in a Capitol still scarred by war, long before Katniss Everdeen’s trials.

Francis Lawrence, director of three films in the original series, adapts Suzanne Collins’s novel here with a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt. Released in France on November 15, 2023, this origin story also features Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage and Jason Schwartzman. Here is the review published by the editorial team upon its release.

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Our review of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes:

The Hunger Games is a product of its time. A dystopian young adult saga adapted from a series of books, it kicked off a huge craze in the first half of the 2010s, which came to an abrupt end as quickly as it had begun. So launching a new Hunger Games movie in 2023, eight years after the last installment came out, is quite a gamble. In any case, an entire generation of fans is eagerly awaiting the film, and their expectations will be more than met.

Because, yes, this new Hunger Games is much better than the previous installments; it may even be the best follow-up to the first film. Even though the book had disappointed. This adaptation may be extremely faithful, but it surpasses the source material—and that’s rare enough to be worth mentioning. It owes this edge to direction that, while conventional, is expertly handled from start to finish by Francis Lawrence, and offers a welcome change from the erratic missteps of American blockbusters like Marvel. The film is long, and at 2 hours 40 minutes, it completely immerses us in this richly layered epic, split into three distinct parts—a true trilogy in a single film. As a result, it never gets boring. Telling the story from the perspective of Coriolanus Snow, who will go on to become the saga’s big bad, is a smart choice. Above all, it lets us see something rare in such a finely calibrated blockbuster: the idealistic, naive hero turning into a monster.

The film’s greatest strength lies above all in its cast. While the lead is played by relative newcomer Tom Blyth, this Hunger Games boasts some big names in its supporting roles. The veterans Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage and Jason Schwartzman ham it up and have a blast in these flamboyant roles. Above all, Rachel Zegler continues to prove that she is one of the most talented actresses of the new generation now emerging. We could almost ask for more.