Tigris Snow might be one of the most interesting characters in the Hunger Games franchise, but who is she really?
With the recent release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Tigris Snow has quickly become one of the most fascinating characters of the whole Hunger Games saga. Although audiences have seen Tigris before in the original saga, the recently released prequel has allowed fans to explore her backstory and character even more. While admittedly she is not the main character of the most recent Hunger Games film, it is undeniable that her presence in the movie is particularly magnetic. This is especially true as Tigris is the only character – other than Coriolanus Snow himself – from the main saga who also appears in the sequel. But who is Tigris, and what happened to her throughout the books and films? Let’s find out!
Tigris Snow Before and After
As established in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and in the homonymous book the movie is based on, Tigris Snow is the older cousin of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth, of Benediction). The two grew up together as they were both taken in by their grandmother after they were orphaned during the Dark Days. Despite being part of one of the elite families in the Capitol, the Snow family struggled financially, which led Tigris to take on part of the burden of supporting the family. This may be why she never pursued university, something her cousin initially seemed very interested in doing in the prequel. Instead, she was employed under one of the fashion designers in the Capitol after graduating from the Academy.
In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Tigris is 21 years old and a significant help to Coriolanus in his role as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games by providing clothes for him to wear and suggesting how to get closer to Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler, of West Side Story). Interestingly, Coriolanus is the first to wonder how she can afford it: the pay for her job seems notoriously low, making him wonder if she may have had to trade herself. At the very beginning of the prequel, her cousin is the first to notice that while “she was no great beauty […]. She had a sweetness, a vulnerability that invited abuse.”
Evidently, in the prequel Tigris is very close to her cousin; she’s often his confidante and aid. This stands in stark contrast with her brief appearance in the main Hunger Games saga: her relationship with Coriolanus (now played by Donald Sutherland), the president of Panem at the time, has deteriorated so much that she even smiles when Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) declares her intention to kill him. Tigris appears in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 when she helps Katniss and the other rebels disguise themselves as Capitol citizens. At the time of the Second Rebellion, she owns a small shop that sells fur-lined clothes, which she uses to aid Katniss after she declares her intention to kill Snow.
Who plays Tigris Snow in the Hunger Games Franchise?
In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Tigris is played by Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), who perfectly embodies the physical attributes of the character. In the prequel, Tigris is described as having a long, pointed nose and skinny body, which is completely different from the person we see in Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. In the final part of the saga, Tigris is played by Eugenie Bondurant and appears to have altered her look to resemble a cat, or perhaps the tiger her name seems to be inspired from. She has evidently undergone extensive plastic surgery, with her face stretched, tattoos with black and gold tiger stripes, flattened nose, and even surgically implanted whiskers.
Is Tigris Snow in the original Hunger Games?
Although Tigris was alive for virtually every edition of the Hunger Games, as a Capitol citizen she did not actually take part in any of them. However, she still had a great impact on some of them, most notably the 10th Hunger Games in which she helped Coriolanus in his role of mentor. In future seasons of the Games, as the role of stylists evolved further, Tigris became one of the stylists for an unspecified district. In fact, in the main Hunger Games saga, Katniss remembers seeing her before.
Despite her involvement with the Hunger Games, one of the main plot points of the saga, Tigris only appears in the last film of the original Hunger Games saga, and, most recently, in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as her younger self. Therefore, fans of the series do not know much about the years between the two films. This is particularly evident as we don’t know anything about her years as a stylist in the games or how her relationship with Coriolanus changed the prequel to the original saga.
There is so much viewers still don’t know about Tigris Snow, who, despite her brief appearances in the Hunger Games saga, seems to have captured the interest of the audience. Her change of circumstances and perspective, particularly regarding her estranged cousin, is particularly interesting given how close the two seem in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Perhaps, in this case, the audience is going to have to fill in the blanks for themselves, that is unless we get a new Hunger Games book or movie that might very well centre this much-discussed and iconic character.
All Hunger Games movies are now available to watch on digital and on demand. Read our reviews of Mockingjay Part 1, Mockingjay Part 2 and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and our list of all Hunger Games movies ranked from worst to best!
