What’s the point of the Hunger Games? That’s the question in the new trailer for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, a prequel of The Hunger Games.

The movie is set during the tenth annual Hunger Games when student and future Panem President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) has been tasked with being a mentor to Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the female tribute from District 12.

The emotionally charged trailer goes deeper inside the Capitol than ever before to show the innerworkings of the games and those who run them – including vicious Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) and Hunger Games creator Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage). It teases the complicated relationship between Coriolanus and Lucy, some of the action that will unfold in the arena, and the toll war has taken on Panem.

Along with Snow, the movie features other familiar names and characters, including Hunger Games host Lucky Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman), the ancestor of Caesar Flickerman, who hosted the games when Katniss was a tribute; and Coriolanus’ cousin Tigris Snow (Hunter Schafer), the cat-like woman who helped Katniss and her squad in the Capitol.

The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed Catching Fire and both Mockingjay movies. It arrives in theaters on November 17, 2023.