8 years after the release of the final Hunger Games movie, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, viewers will finally return to the world of Panem in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on November 17, 2023.
On May 19, 2020, Suzanne Collins, author of the famous Hunger Games trilogy, released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a spin-off and prequel to the aforementioned trilogy, featuring Coriolanus Snow as a teenager, when he was a mentor during the 10th Hunger Games. His mentee was Lucy Gray, who at the end of the book, is revealed to be a possible relative to Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of the original trilogy. Lucy Gray is also the very first victor of The Hunger Games that District 12 ever had, having been mentioned indirectly and in passing in the first trilogy.
The success of the both the first trilogy as books and as movies and the subsequent success of the prequel upon its release prompted the desire for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to be made into a film. While it is unlikely that any of the protagonists from the original film trilogy – Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss), Josh Hutcherson (Peeta), Liam Hemsworth (Gale) and Woody Harrelson (Haymitch) – will make appearances, it is still possible that there might be an appearance of Donald Sutherland as President Coriolanus Snow, but likely only at the very end as a cameo appearance.
While there is release date for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it is still unknown who will be portraying the leads. Fortunately, we know that Francis Lawrence, director of the entire Hunger Games franchise, will be returning to direct The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, thus promising that the movie will be a major success.
Are you looking forward to the movie? Not all prequel or spin-off movies tend to be as huge a success as the original film series – the Fantastic Beasts film series, The Hobbit film series and the Star Wars sequel trilogy – but this one promises to be a success. Stay tuned for more news about the upcoming movie and check out other book-to-movie adaptations articles here!