The Hunger Games prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has revealed its surprising new hero.

Fans of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy should be familiar with Coriolanus Snow, the trilogy’s intimidating, insidious antagonist. Readers will know him as the master manipulator and tyrant who not only made Katniss Everdeen’s life a living hell, but the lives of nearly everyone in the country of Panem.

Or, at least, they would’ve forever remember him as such.

Now, it looks like we’ll be seeing a different side of the Hunger Games antagonist in the upcoming prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as Entertainment Weekly has just announced that the new prequel novel will center on a young Coriolanus Snow as its protagonist. The website has an exclusive excerpt in which he attempts to become a mentor in the annual Hunger Games.

As previously announced in June, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a Hunger Games prequel that will be set 64 years before the original trilogy that centered on the characters of Katniss, Peeta, and Gale and followed their stories as they attempted to survive, then overthrow, The Capitol.

According to author Suzanne Collins, “With this book, I wanted to explore the state of nature, who we are, and what we perceive is required for our survival. The reconstruction period 10 years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days — as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet — provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity.”

Though fans had hoped and predicted that the prequel series would center on Hunger Games fan-favorite character Mags, it looks as though the series will instead focus on President Snow before he was a president, and when he was just a young, privileged man searching for something more.

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive illustration of the young Coriolanus Snow, as well as an excerpt for fans. See both here!