'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' didn't need that President Snow voiceover

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes ends with a foreboding promise. We watch as Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) performs a victory tour of sorts, having just arrived back in the Capitol from District 12. He secures a swanky new gamemaker position with Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), poisons his enemy Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), and reclaims his family home. In the film's last moments, he gazes up at a gleaming Capitol statue in determination, as if he's already sizing up the presidency of Panem. In that one glance, the message is clear: Snow may have landed on top, but in doing so, he's become the monster who will terrorize the districts for years to come. It's a chilling reminder of what's next for Panem, and an effective ending for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. And then the film goes and undermines all of that. SEE ALSO: 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' review: This return to Panem was well worth the wait As the screen fades to black, we hear a familiar voice speaking some familiar words. Donald Sutherland, the original President Snow, returns in voiceover, saying, "It's the things we love most that destroy us." Cue a massive eye roll from me. There are several things wrong with this closing moment, the first being that this voiceover simply isn't necessary. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes spends its entire runtime focused on a young President Snow, so why hastily shoehorn in Sutherland's version in the film's last seconds? This is the kind of behavior I'd expect to see in a trailer to tease who Snow will become, but not from the theatrical release itself. And guess what? This quote does, in fact, close out the film's first trailer, making its inclusion here feel all the more redundant. (According to an Entertainment Weekly interview with director Francis Lawrence, the use of the quote in the trailer led to him using it in the film.) Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth in "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes." Credit