“Hunger Games” fans got their first look at the series’ new prequel on Tuesday, and it’s already causing controversy, according to Time magazine.
An excerpt of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” was published by Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday, and the newly-revealed main character is one that will be familiar to fans: Coriolanus Snow, dictator of Panem and villain of the “Hunger Games,” Time reported.
The story of the prequel is known to take place 64 years before the events of “The Hunger Games” during the “Dark Days” of Panem, according to BBC News.
At the time of the story, Snow is a student who is asked to be a “mentor” to one of the participants in that year’s Hunger Games: a competition in which teenagers are forced to fight to the death while the country watches, according to Time.
The girl that Snow must mentor turns out to be from District Twelve, where Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of the “Hunger Games” trilogy, is from.
The official “Hunger Games” Twitter account introduced the young Snow as “your new hero,” and some fans have expressed their concern that the murderous dictator will become the protagonist, according to BBC.
Some have made comparisons to concerns over last year’s “Joker” movie, with its “focus on celebrating and deepening audience empathy with a white male character who’s previously been established as the villain of a franchise,” according to Vox.
Many people expressed their opinions about the news on Twitter and social media.
“I’ve waited years and preordered the hunger games sequel,” one Twitter user wrote, “for it to be a president snow origin story ... about a rich white boy becoming an authoritarian who loves *checks notes* genocide?”
Meanwhile, other Twitter users had thoughts about other characters that Collins could have used instead of a young President Snow.
“A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” will be published May 19.