The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes - What's The Song In The 2nd Trailer?

If the song in the second trailer for "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" sounds familiar, that's because it's actually a major part of the franchise.  

The song in question, sung by Rachel Zegler — who plays Lucy Gray Baird in the film — is called "The Hanging Tree," and honestly, it's a pretty dark song about two doomed lovers whose journeys end in death. As Katniss Everdeen (played in the original movies by Jennifer Lawrence) notes in the book series, it seems, at first, like a man is asking his lover to come and meet him at a tree — specifically, a tree where someone was killed by hanging — so they can run away together, but pretty soon, she realizes something's off: "The murderer's lover must have had something to do with the killing, or maybe they were just going to punish her anyway, because his corpse called out for her to flee. That's weird obviously, the talking-corpse bit, but it's not until the third verse that "The Hanging Tree" begins to get unnerving. You realize the singer of the song is the dead murderer."

Lawrence originally sang the song in the "Hunger Games" films — specifically in the third installment, "Mockingjay: Part 1," where it ends up being used in propaganda footage against the violent Capitol of Panem. It ended up being a major hit outside of the film itself, even hitting the Billboard Top 100 in 2014 — and now, Zegler, who earned her fame in the 2021 remake of "West Side Story," is showing off her own voice with a re-recording for this prequel.

A prequel to the original "Hunger Games" narrative, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" focuses on a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) — the man who grows up to be the cruel, unforgiving president of Panem — and his experiences mentoring a young Hunger Games tribute from the poverty-stricken District 12, Lucy Gray Baird. Unfortunately for Coriolanus, he develops a particularly close bond with Lucy, who turns out to be a talented, charming songstress — and a formidable opponent in the Games themselves.

The film also stars Hunter Schafer as Coriolanus' sister Tigris, Peter Dinklage as Academy dean and Hunger Games architect Casca Highbottom, Viola Davis as head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul, and Jason Schwartzman as exuberant TV host Lucretis "Lucky" Flickerman. Spanning a large swath of Coriolanus' life, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" is yet another violent, twisted, and deeply emotional story from original series author Suzanne Collins ... and the film adaptation, helmed by "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" director Francis Lawrence, promises to be a worthy entry into the canon.

"The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" arrives in theaters on November 17, 2023.