'The Hunger Games: Songbirds and Snakes' Director Talks 'Tricky' Job of Getting Fans 'Rooting' for President Snow (Exclusive)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes captivated audiences when it debuted in theaters in November, and now fans can bring the epic prequel movie home. To celebrate the film's home video release, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with the film's director, Francis Lawrence, who also helmed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, as well as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2. During our conversation, Lawrence opened up about what went into making the movie, including the "tricky" job of getting fans to "root" for President Coriolanus Snow, the villainous role originally played by Donald Sutherland in The Hunger Games, but played in the new film by Tom Blyth. 

This time around, Snow is more of a protagonist, which is a big shift from how fans came to know the character in the original Hunger Games books and movies.

"Look, to be honest, I think we had two worries going into the development of this. Very, very early on," Lawrence confessed. "Before we read the manuscript, the worry was, 'Is there an appetite for Hunger Games movies without Katniss?' But then I read the manuscript and the truth is I choose the movies that I do based on the story and whether or not it's a story that I love and stand behind and believe in and feel is relevant and feel I can really sink my teeth into. I really fell in love with the story, so chose to do it and develop it. Then, I will say, the primary objective for us was to get the audience behind Snow. There's always tricks in an adaptation of squeezing the amount of content down from a book to a feature-length and all of that."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Hunger Games (@thehungergames)

"Suzanne's books are always a little tricky to adapt to because often you're hearing the character's thoughts and you have to figure out ways to visualize that and dramatize that. That's always tricky, but our main objective was to get people behind Snow and rooting for Snow," Lawrence continued, noting the film's novel origins. "The truth is from the very beginning and going through the book with Suzanne Collins, the author and creating the beat sheet with her and then working with the screenwriters, it was always trying to figure out how to visually and dramatically sell him as a character that people can relate to. I think it was really just us grinding and grinding and grinding away that helped us do it, and part of it was showing the poverty that he lived in."

Praising Blyth for his performance and a young Snow, Lawrence said, "Part of it is the casting of Tom who is a very charismatic, likable guy, understanding this idea that his goals are to figure out a life for himself so he can support his cousin and his grandmother to put food on the table, to keep a roof over their head and all these kinds of things that we can really empathize with, but also to clearly present him as a character that is not fully formed. To see the guy before he becomes the Snow that we all know. Even though we all have in our head the potential and where he's going to end up, what becomes interesting is to see him before those philosophies and that way of looking at the world or implanted into his brain."

Lastly, Lawrence shared, "What's interesting about it is in the making of the movie, I think that when we were cutting it and we first started testing it doing family friend screenings and tests, we were actually almost too successful in getting people to root for Snow and because people really started to like Snow and he as a character tested through the roof as a character and as an actor, which is crazy for your protagonist, antagonist." The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is available now on digital platforms, and will be coming to 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on Feb. 13.