Coriolanus Snow | |
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The Hunger Games character | |
![]() Eighteen-year-old Snow is portrayed by Tom Blyth (left); President Snow is portrayed by Donald Sutherland (right) | |
First appearance | The Hunger Games (2008 novel) |
Last appearance | The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023 film) |
Created by | Suzanne Collins |
Portrayed by |
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In-universe information | |
Full name | Coriolanus Snow |
Nickname | Coryo |
Title |
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Occupation |
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Family |
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Significant other | Lucy Gray Baird |
Home | Capitol, Panem |
Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow is a character in The Hunger Games franchise, a book series and film series. In the original book trilogy (2008–2010), President Snow is the dictator of the state of Panem through the end of the Second Rebellion, which deposes him. In the prequel book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020), he is an ambitious, intelligent and charismatic 18-year-old. He is assigned the role of mentoring a girl competing in the tenth Hunger Games—singer Lucy Gray Baird—and forms a relationship with her.
In the first four film adaptations, President Snow is portrayed by Donald Sutherland. He asked to be involved in the series as he believed it would engage young viewers in the politics of revolution. Tom Blyth was cast as the younger Snow in the film The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023): he saw the character as progressing through three stages, from naive and ambitious to the more reserved, Sutherland-like character.
Roses are a symbol of the Snow family, connecting Coriolanus to his mother and grandmother. He uses roses to communicate with The Hunger Games' main character, Katniss Everdeen. His signature method of eliminating his enemies is with poison. Snow is influenced by Dr. Gaul's view of state control as a necessity to prevent disorder. He initially acts to help Lucy Gray out of self-interest but develops feelings for her. Lucy Gray bears similarities to Katniss, including their musicality, home, and experience in the Hunger Games.
Critics of both the book and film disapproved of the choice to center Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as it is known that he will become a villain. However, Sutherland's performance in four The Hunger Games films—which expanded the role of President Snow from the books—garnered acclaim. Sutherland was nominated for a Teen Choice Award and an MTV Movie Award.
Snow lives in Panem, set in future North America, where an elite Capitol rules over 12 Districts. Each year, a Hunger Games takes place to punish the Districts for a failed revolution, known as the Dark Days. The Games consist of a male and female Tribute from each District fighting to the death until one remains.
Snow comes from a wealthy Capitol family that lost its status in the Dark Days, where his father Crassus Snow was killed in battle and his fortune - invested in ammunition district 13, which is destroyed in the revolution - is lost. Snow faces eviction from his penthouse apartment, along with his cousin Tigris and grandmother—who they refer to as Grandma'am. The family has sold much of their belongings and struggles to eat well.
In the tenth Hunger Games, 18-year-old Snow has an opportunity as a mentor to boost his status and fund his upcoming university studies to save himself, Tigris and Grandma’am. He is assigned the female Tribute of District 12, 16-year-old Lucy Gray Baird, who shows character and performance through her singing. Snow meets her at the train station, sneaks her food and prepares her to win Capitol sponsorships so he can provide her with food and water in the arena—a new feature of the Games that he suggests. They grow close and hold hands with each other.
Dr. Gaul, the Gamemaker, is interested in Snow's views on the Games and suggestions on how to increase their appeal. She forces him to enter the arena to remove another mentor—District-born Sejanus Plinth—who is protesting against the Games. While leaving with Sejanus, Snow kills a Tribute to defend himself. Snow realizes Dr. Gaul plans to let mutated snakes loose in the arena and drops a handkerchief with Lucy Gray's scent into the snakes' cage so that they do not attack her. Lucy Gray wins the Games because of this.
Dean Highbottom discovers Snow has cheated and coerces him to sign up to be a Peacekeeper, where he will enforce order in District 12. Sejanus also signs up as a Peacekeeper. Snow reunites with Lucy Gray, and they start a relationship; he attends her musical performances with her family, the Covey. He is jealous of her past with a boy, Billy, but she writes songs about Snow. After becoming caught up in a rebel plot that involves Sejanus, Snow kills a citizen with an illicit gun and provides information that leads Sejanus and a rebel to be executed. Fearing he will be executed next, he runs away in the woods with Lucy Gray.
Snow discovers and destroys the last evidence of his crimes as Lucy Gray begins to distrust him over the number of people he says he has killed. He pursues her through the woods, and she leaves a snake to attack him. He shoots at her and is unsure whether she has died or escaped. He returns to Panem, where he is assigned a prestigious mentorship under Dr. Gaul.
In The Hunger Games , Catching Fire and Mockingjay , Coriolanus Snow is the president of Panem. In Catching Fire, Snow meets with Katniss Everdeen before her Victory Tour to threaten her and her loved ones. To crush anti-Capitol sentiment, Snow says Katniss must convince even him that her relationship with Peeta is real. In Mockingjay, Snow directs the Capitol's military campaign to quash the revolution in the Districts and becomes Katniss' archenemy.
In the book Mockingjay, Snow is seen on television and in Katniss' imagination. Katniss demands to be the one to kill Snow in order to join the rebels' propaganda team, a moment removed from the films. [1] She later insists on fighting in the Capitol in order to kill Snow directly. After the rebel victory, Katniss finds Snow nonetheless upbeat as he talks about the pair of them being "played for fools". Snow begins to make Katniss believe that District 13 dropped the bombs that killed her younger sister Prim. [2] A public execution for Snow is held, where Katniss is to kill him with a bow and arrow. Instead, she shoots rebellion leader Alma Coin, leading Snow to laugh uncontrollably and die from coughing up blood.
In the film adaptations, Snow has a larger role, with additional scenes shown from his point of view. [1] In the first film, he has conversations with Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane in a rose garden. [3] In Catching Fire , his main role is to discuss with Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. [4] In Mockingjay – Part 1 , a team behind him including a speech writer are introduced. [1] In Mockingjay – Part 2 , he poisons a general at a formal dinner. [2]
A deleted scene from Mockingjay – Part 1 shows Snow discussing the uprisings with Peeta and explaining Peeta's role in his propaganda campaign. [5] [6] It was omitted as the film is shown from Katniss' perspective. [7]
Snow takes his forename from the Roman general Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. In William Shakespeare's play Coriolanus , the general supports aristocrats' elevated political power in society. [8] Sarah Lyall of The New York Times compared his villainous role to Machiavelli, Nero and Richard III. [9] His villainy as president is more overt in the films, where he resembles a James Bond villain, than in the books. [2]
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes depicts how Snow became a villain. [10] Author Suzanne Collins thought of the William Wordsworth quote, "the child is the father of the man", when reflecting on how Snow's childhood influenced his views towards food, women and Panem. She considered the idea of tabula rasa —that people are born as 'blank slates' and develop through life experiences—but noted that Snow's contemporaries have contrasting personalities despite suffering in wartime. [11]
Eighteen-year-old Snow is presented as a charismatic and talented student. [12] Snow is egotistical, ambitious and controlling: though his actions appear morally virtuous, his rationale is selfish or opportunistic. [12] [10] [9] [13] He believes himself a good person, despite his impossible situation, [12] and better by birthright than his District-born classmate Sejanus. [10]
By the time of The Hunger Games, Snow represents the state of Panem. [14] He is a fascist and a totalitarian dictator who aims to crush the revolution. [15] [13] [16] As president, Snow shows ruthlessness, intelligence and sadism. [16] [10]
Roses symbolize the Snow legacy. Coriolanus Snow owns a compact from his mother with rose-scented powder that reminds him of her. [17] On their penthouse's roof, Grandma'am cultivates a rose garden. She values the roses highly and gives Snow several for important occasions. [13] When he is president, Snow gives Katniss a rose after their meeting in Catching Fire and leaves a single rose in her bombed house in Mockingjay. Roses are dropped after the bombing of District 13. [13]
According to Finnick in Mockingjay, Snow poisoned his enemies to ascend to the presidency, drinking from the same cups as them to gain trust and then taking an antidote. Drinking poison gave him mouth sores and he masked the smell of blood with roses. [13] Snow is seen to poison Dean Highbottom in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. [13] Snow's father was responsible for the Hunger Games' founding, submitting a drunken idea of Highbottom's as part of an assignment when both were students. Highbottom bears a grudge against Coriolanus Snow as a consequence. [13]
Snow initially acts on Lucy Gray's behalf as a path to reaching university. However, he soon begins to genuinely care for her and struggles to distinguish between his motives for helping her. [10] Snow experiences both love and possessiveness towards Lucy Gray. [18] In his view, however, Lucy Gray betrays him, and he becomes a colder character. [13]
Katniss may remind Snow of Lucy Gray due to their shared district, musical talent and relationship formed in the Games. Snow believes that Peeta loves Katniss, but that she does not reciprocate; he forces her on the Victory Tour to "convince him" that the relationship is real. [13] Katniss sings as revolutionary propaganda, which parallels Lucy Gray's songwriting. She also directly sings songs composed by Lucy Gray. [17] Collins said Lucy Gray's music "helped to bring down" President Snow, citing Katniss singing "Deep in the Meadow" to Rue during a Hunger Games. [11]
Snow is sympathetic in his initial disgust towards Dr. Gaul. [9] However, they share the view that the Games are necessary to show humans' behavior at its most animalistic. Dr. Gaul encourages Snow to see the Capitol's control of Panem as justified to protect against chaos. [17]
Donald Sutherland portrayed the elderly Snow in four Hunger Games films. He read the first film's script and asked to be part of it because of its political themes. [3] Sutherland, who had engaged in left-wing activism, wanted young viewers to organize and start a revolutionary movement to create political change in the United States. [19] [20] Snow had few lines in the script, but director Gary Ross added scenes for the character in a rose garden. [3]
Sutherland saw inequality, power and hope as the themes of the series and believed Snow was irredeemable. Sutherland compared Snow to several U.S. presidents for their "expedient decisions" to exert control. [19] [16] Sutherland said Snow respects Katniss, who challenges him and shows him how his life could have gone; conversely, Sutherland believed Katniss would have become president of Panem if she were Snow's granddaughter. [19] [21]
Tom Blyth was cast as the younger Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. [22] Director Francis Lawrence wanted to cast somebody with blue eyes, to match Sutherland. [23] Over a two-month period, Blyth underwent rounds of solo auditioning and script reading with people auditioning as Lucy Gray, to test the actors' chemistry. [22] Producer Nina Jacobson said the difficulty was finding an actor who could portray Snow's heroic side as well as his villainous side. [24] As Snow is underfed, Blyth said he dieted mostly on "apple slices and almond butter" for six months. Blyth's hair was dyed from brown to blond. [25]
Neither Lawrence nor Blyth wanted to recreate Sutherland's characterization of Snow. [23] [22] However, Blyth's voice changed towards the end of the film to be more similar to Sutherland's Snow. [23] The film ends with a voice-over line by Sutherland, which he says in Mockingjay – Part 1: "It's the things we love most that destroy us". Snow tells Katniss this as the rebels rescue Peeta, who has been tortured into despising Katniss. [13] This line was included by the Lionsgate marketing team in a trailer and then incorporated into the film by Lawrence. [26] [27]
Blyth hoped viewers could understand Snow's motivations and how he became evil through the movie. [25] Blyth saw his character as undergoing three stages: naive and ambitious ("Coryo"); entering manhood ("Coriolanus"); and the guarded figure played by Sutherland ("future President Snow"). [23] Jacobson said the film required the audience to side with Snow despite knowing his fate, but also needed to portray his greed and ambition. [24]
Lucy Pavia of The Evening Standard found that Snow "fails to stir much empathy or interest" with his "oddly curdled" mixture of empathy and ambition. Pavia was unclear which character the audience was supposed to support, contrasting him with Katniss. [28] Time 's Megan McCluskey criticized that his character was "reverse-engineered" based on his role in The Hunger Games, with the "roots of his at-any-costs ambition" not justified. [18]
In contrast, Laura Miller of Slate praised Snow as a more relatable and realistic protagonist than Katniss, as he experiences "petty resentments, flashes of generosity, and moral failures". Miller found his perspective tiring in the middle of the book but praised the book's direction as Coriolanus is forced to make difficult choices in District 12. [10]
Many critics disapproved of the film's focus on Snow. Vulture 's Roxana Hadadi reviewed that Snow's future villainy and a single year of his life prevent the movie from forming "a coherent portrait" of the character. [29] In HuffPost , Candice Frederick objected to the origin story of a white male villain as clichéd. Frederick found it hard to be invested in the story when Snow's villainy is already known and criticized the implications of an oppressed woman of color—Lucy Gray—falling in love with her white oppressor—Snow. [30] Lauren Coates of Chicago Reader said the film did not "fully commit to exploring Snow as a twisted antihero", instead focusing on the "distraction" of Snow and Lucy Gray's Romeo and Juliet -like relationship. [31]
Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald described Blyth's Snow as "intimidatingly tall with icy blue eyes, blonde curls and a patrician demeanour". [32] In Deadline Hollywood , Valerie Complex said Snow had "uncharacteristic hesitancy and lack of confidence", unlike the book's "chillingly dispassionate cunning", and that humanizing the character worked against the film. [33] The Observer 's Wendy Ide found Snow "oddly inconsistent" and undeveloped; [34] Time 's Stephanie Zacharek questioned why Lucy Gray would be attracted to him. [35] In contrast, Elizabeth Weitzman of Time Out praised Blyth's "understated charisma" and chemistry with other actors for providing the "steady centre" of the film. [36]
Sutherland was nominated for a 2014 MTV Movie Award in the Best Villain category for Catching Fire. [37] He was nominated for a 2015 Teen Choice Award in the Movie Villain category for Mockingjay – Part 1. [38]
Critics largely praised Sutherland's acting. [14] [39] [15] Reviewers noted that his white beard makes him resemble a lion. [39] [4] The Independent reviewer Geoffrey Macnab called him a "sleekly evil, beard-stroking President". [15] The New Yorker 's David Denby found his "satanic eyebrows and rounded, insinuating voice" entertaining. [40] Emily St. James, writing in Vox , lauded Sutherland as "icily brilliant". [41] Nonetheless, David Thomson of The New Republic criticized Sutherland as "hollow and predictable" in the role of a "portentous mastermind". [42]
His role in the films' narrative was met with mixed reception. Writing in The Globe and Mail , Geoff Pevere believed his role increased the dramatic tension of Catching Fire. [43] Hall criticized Snow's diminished screen time in Mockingjay – Part 1 compared to previous films. [44] IGN 's Terri Schwartz said that Mockingjay – Part 2 neglects other characters to focus on the rivalry between Katniss and Snow, adding that Katniss' refusal to kill Snow at the end "lacks the punch it needs". [45]
Suzanne Collins is an American author and television writer. She is best known as the author of the young adult dystopian book series The Hunger Games. She is also the author of the children's fantasy series The Underland Chronicles.
The Hunger Games is a 2008 dystopian young adult novel by the American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the perspective of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the future, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle royale to the death.
"Lucy Gray" is a poem written by William Wordsworth in 1799 and published in his Lyrical Ballads. It describes the death of a young girl named Lucy Gray, who went out one evening into a storm.
Catching Fire is a 2009 dystopian young adult fiction novel by the American novelist Suzanne Collins, the second book in The Hunger Games series. As the sequel to the 2008 bestseller The Hunger Games, it continues the story of Katniss Everdeen and the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem. Following the events of the previous novel, a rebellion against the oppressive Capitol has begun, and Katniss and fellow tribute Peeta Mellark are forced to return to the arena in a special edition of the Hunger Games.
Mockingjay is a 2010 dystopian young adult fiction novel by American author Suzanne Collins. It is chronologically the last installment of The Hunger Games series, following 2008's The Hunger Games and 2009's Catching Fire. The book continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, who agrees to unify the districts of Panem in a rebellion against the tyrannical Capitol.
Katniss Everdeen is a fictional character and the protagonist of The Hunger Games trilogy written by American author Suzanne Collins. She is portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the film adaptations The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
Peeta Mellark is a fictional character of The Hunger Games trilogy written by American author Suzanne Collins. He is portrayed by actor Josh Hutcherson in The Hunger Games film series.
The Hunger Games is a 2012 American dystopian action film directed by Gary Ross, who co-wrote the screenplay with Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray, based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Collins. It is the first installment in The Hunger Games franchise . The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. In the film, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) are forced to compete in the Hunger Games, an elaborate televised fight to the death consisting of adolescent contestants from the 12 Districts of Panem.
The Hunger Games is a series of young adult dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The series consists of a trilogy that follows teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen, with a prequel set 64 years before the original series. The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a North American country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 13 districts in varying states of poverty. Every year, children from the first 12 districts are selected via lottery to participate in a compulsory televised battle royale death match called The Hunger Games. Aided by nuclear weaponry, the last district instead successfully rebelled against the Capitol and moved underground following a secret peace treaty.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a 2013 American dystopian action film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and Michael deBruyn, based on the 2009 novel Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. The sequel to The Hunger Games (2012), it is the second installment in The Hunger Games film series. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. In the film, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson) become targets of the Capitol after their victory in the Games inspire uprisings in Panem.
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The Hunger Games is a media franchise centering on a series of science fiction dystopian adventure films, based on the novel series of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The films are distributed by Lionsgate. The series feature an ensemble cast including Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark, Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and Donald Sutherland as President Snow. In the prequel film, Tom Blyth stars as Coriolanus Snow, Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow, Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom, Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul and Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman.
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