Viola Davis Dials Up Dread For Rachel Zegler In 'Hunger Games' Prequel Trailer

Viola Davis brings villainous vigor to the trailer for “Hunger Games ” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes .” (Watch the video below.)

The preview , which dropped Thursday, highlights the Oscar winner in the role of Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul.

“See how quickly we become predator?” she says. “See how quickly civilization disappears?”

That doesn’t bode well for new franchise lead Rachel Zegler ’s Lucy Gray Baird, one of the chosen children fighting to the death decades before Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen kicked butt.

Zegler’s character must deal with a “mentor” — the future evil President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) — and Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), who informs Snow that “your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors.”

“The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” is slated for a Nov. 17 release, eight years after the previous “Hunger Games” movie premiered. Together, the four earlier films based on Suzanne Collins’ book series have grossed nearly $3 billion  at the box office worldwide.