Hunter Schafer steals the show as Tigris Snow in new Hunger Games prequel trailer: ‘So mesmerising’
Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. (Lionsgate)
A new trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has just landed, and trans Euphoria star Hunter Schafer is blowing people away.
It’s been a long wait since the very first trailer, which was released back in April, but fans finally have a brand new look at the movie, which is set 64 years before the Hunger Games instalment.
Based on the 2020 novel of the same name, the new film will follow an 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (played by Billy The Kid star Tom Blyth), tracing the events that led him to eventually become the tyrannical leader of Panem.
In the lead up to the 10th annual Hunger Games, the young Snow realises he’s been selected to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler), the young tribute from poor District 12. Over time, as Lucy Gray captures the attention of Panem, her connection with Snow grows stronger.
As their bond evolves, they combine their skills to turn the odds (ever) in their favour, with the hope of surviving the death match, and preserving Snow’s family legacy.
While the core of the story focuses on Snow and Lucy Gray, 24-year-old Hunter Schafer also stars as Tigris Snow, the cousin and right-hand woman to Coriolanus.
Fans of the books and earlier films will know though that, in the future, she will go on to revolt against Panem’s dictatorial rule.
In the near three-minute trailer, Schafer’s Tigris can be seen arm-in-arm with her cousin, and voicing her thoughts as his voice of reason.
“Imagine it was your name that they pulled,” she urges him in one scene. “I’d just wanna know that somebody still cared about me, that I was still of value.”
Though Schafer’s appearance in the new Hunger Games clip is short, it has evidently had an impact, with fans praising her casting.
“She’s such a perfect casting for Tigris, she was one of the most human characters in the book. I can’t wait to see Hunter in this role,” one fan wrote.
“Hunter Schafer has a kind of beauty that just instantly makes you breathless,” gushed another. “She’s unreal.”
“A serve beyond imagination and an excellent casting choice,” declared a third.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is Hunter Schafer’s second acting role outside of Euphoria (in which she plays Jules Vaughn, the troubled best friend of Zendaya’s character Rue). Despite being an industry newcomer, she is already seen as one of the biggest trans stars to watch.
Alongside Schafer, the Hunger Games prequel also stars The Woman King‘s Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, and Peter Dinklage as Cas Highbottom.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes lands in cinemas on 17 November.
