The two stars, known for their roles in Lionsgate‘s original Hunger Games films, will appear in the forthcoming prequel movie The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Lionsgate releases the new feature in theaters Nov. 20, 2026.
Lawrence will reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen, while Hutcherson will return as Peeta Mellark, with the pair likely appearing in a flash-forward. No details have been disclosed.
The book Sunrise on the Reaping takes place in Panem on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, 24 years before the events in The Hunger Games, the first novel that published in 2008. The franchise’s first five movies have surpassed $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office, with the initial four films led by Lawrence as Katniss, Hutcherson as Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. The film series kicked off with 2012’s The Hunger Games.
Lawrence and Hutcherson’s most recent entry in the franchise was 2015’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, which ended with the pair married with children. Lawrence earned a Golden Globe Award nomination this week for her role in Die My Love, while Hutcherson currently stars in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.
Francis Lawrence helms the new movie from a script by Billy Ray that adapts Collins’ book. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson produce for Color Force, while Cameron MacConomy executive produces.
Sunrise on the Reaping is a sequel to 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which starred Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth and Hunter Schafer.
Lionsgate did not respond for comment.
The InSneiderwas first to report on Lawrence and Hutcherson being involved.
Quentin Tarantino had a hot take about The Hunger Games that got the Internet talking. The celebrated filmmaker joined the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast to chat about all kinds of movies. But, his comments about Hunger Games ripping-off Battle Royale have everyone taking notice. Tarantino argues that Battle Royale writer Kenta Fukasaku (or maybe Koushun Takami, who wrote the novel the movie is based on?) should have sued Suzanne Collins because of the similarities between the two ideas.
Here’s what the Kill Bill director said, “I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every f****** thing she owns.”
“They just ripped off the f*****’ book. Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale so the stupid book critics never called her on it,” Tarantino added. “They talked about how it was the most original f*****’ thing they’d ever read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, ‘What the f***? This is just Battle Royale except PG!’”
Where to begin with a statement like this? Tarantino clearly cares a lot about the medium of film. But, this take is dismissive at the best, and maybe even wrong at the worst at the worst end of it? Yes, the stories of The Hunger Games and Battle Royale do harbor some similarities to each other. But, there have been multiple ideas where two very similar ideas come out near each other without any cheating or copying occurring.
Did Hunger Games copy Battle Royale?
(Toei)
As we just said, the Hunger Games and Battle Royale situation seems like one where the more popular version of a similar story gets this accusation lobbed at it. Suzanne Collins has done well for herself. But, honestly so have Fukasaku and Takami. (Go on Lettrboxd right now and check how many of your friends have ranked/rated Battle Royale. It’s near-universal acclaim in film circles.)
For her part, Collins has been asked about this issue as far back as 2011. The New York Times interviewed the Hunger Games author about all of this success. During their conversation, the question of Battle Royale and its inspiration for the source material came up. Collins laid out a timeline that seems absolutely conceivable.
“I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in,” Collins explained. “At that point, it was mentioned to me, and I asked my editor if I should read it. He said, ‘No, I don’t want that world in your head. Just continue with what you’re doing.’”
Why does this happen so much?
(Lionsgate)
So, with that all established, the question of how this happens so often rears its head. To be brief, people have ideas at the same time. If you look at the groundwater in the early 2010’s, youth cultures around the world were feeling alienated by not having a voice in political and community discussions. Identities being easily weaponized against one another would lead you to look at the idea of battling your classmates as novel.
BJ Colangelo and Harmony Colangelo’s This Ends at Prom podcast heard about these quotes and quickly pointed out that Battle Royale’s writer took inspiration from Stephen King’s The Long Walk. And, there’s a long chain of Young Adult media taking strands from things that inspired their creators.
That’s probably what’s going down here. Every generation gets the Battle Royale they deserve, it would seem. But, seeing so many people pick up on this discourse is interesting to witness at a time where The Hunger Games is on a wild resurgence. None of the creators in this story are exactly struggling in the public eye. Maybe it’s just a case of us all being more similar than we think?
Peter Dinklage thinks the Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is for everyone, whether they’re fans of the original film franchise or not.
The Game of Thrones star plays Casca Highbottom in the prequel. He is the Dean of the Academy in the Capitol, who unintentionally creates the Hunger Games and lives to regret it.
“It’s what we call in the trades a prequel,” Dinklage said on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “So you don’t need to see the other movies — or perhaps it will inspire you to see the films already made — but he created it, and now the genie’s out of the bottle, and he realizes what he’s done is horrible. So, he likes to intoxicate himself to cover the pain up.”
The Emmy winner shared that the outrageousfashion the Hunger Games became known for in the first few films still applies to the prequel but with a “Cold War” twist. He also said they filmed in Berlin, where they used a lot of the old architecture for their backgrounds.
“I used to party. I don’t party much anymore,” Dinklage admitted when Colbert asked if he partied while on location. “[Instead,] I found this park. I would go on my days off whenever the young people were probably partying, and I would train this bird.”
The prequel takes place 64 years before the events of TheHunger Games, which starred Jennifer Lawrence. It follows Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) — decades before he becomes the tyrannical president from the original film franchise — when he gets assigned to mentor District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). Together, the two race against time to reveal who is a songbird and who is a snake.
Lionsgate’s prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opened to $44 million at the domestic box office, easily enough to win the weekend but coming in behind expectations. The event pic has plenty of time to make up ground over Thanksgiving week, one of the most lucrative corridors of the year at the box office.
Heading into the frame, tracking suggested the movie would devour at least $50 million in ticket sales as Lionsgate goes about the difficult task of trying to create a spinoff franchise. The studio remained hopeful on Saturday morning that the pic would come in on the higher end of the $45 million to $50 million range, but traffic slipped more than expected on Saturday.
Overseas, the fifth title in the Hunger Games series started off with $54.5 million from 87 markets for a global opening of $98.5 million (foreign distributors financed much of the film when snapping up rights to their particular territories).
The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opens eight years after the last Hunger Games played in theaters and 12 years after the first film hit the big screen. The new movie earned a B+ CinemaScore, the lowest of the franchise. Female moviegoers made up the majority of Friday’s audience — or 64 percent.
The four Hunger Games films, based on Suzanne Collins’ dystopian YA novels, starred Jennifer Lawrence and all opened north of $100 million domestically on their way to raking in $2.9 billion at the global box office.
The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is based on Collins’ book of the same name. Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth lead the cast of the prequel, which also stars Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman and Viola Davis. Francis Lawrence, who helmed three previous Hunger Games movies, returns in the director’s chair.
The dystopian action adventure kicked off the Thanksgiving box office alongside Universal and DreamWorks’ Trolls Band Together and TriStar and Spyglass Media Group’s slasher pic Thanksgiving, directed by Eli Roth.
Trolls Band Together came in second with $30.6 million, in line with expectations and more than enough for a second-place finish. The family pic may have put off critics, but audiences bestowed it with an A CinemaScore. Trolls Band Together has already opened in a number of markets overseas, where it is expected to finish Sunday with a foreign tally of $76.3 million and $108.1 million globally.
The threequel returns Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake to the roles of Poppy and Branch, who are now officially a couple. The movie was shepherded by returning director Walt Dohrn and producer Gina Shay. Similar to the Hunger Games prequel, the film is skewing female (69 percent of the audience for the movie in theaters).
The outlook remained bleak for superhero pic The Marvels, which fell 78 percent in its second outing to rank as Marvel Studios’ worst second-weekend drop of all time, as well as the worst for any Hollywood superhero pic in modern history. Among Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, threequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania previously sported the worst drop of 69 percent.
The Marvels earned an estimated $10.2 million for the weekend to tie with Thanksgiving. The final order will be determined Monday morning.
Overseas, the superhero tentpole took in another $19.5 million from 52 markets for a tepid foreign tally of $96.3 million and $161.3 million globally.
Roth’s latest horror offering earned a B- CinemaScore and skewed male (56 percent). Overseas, Thanksgiving earned $2.4 million from its first 11 markets for a global start of $12.6 million.
At the specialty box office, Oscar hopeful Saltburn opened in seven locations. The MGM and Amazon film scored a promising per-theater average of $45,100. Overseas, where Warner Bros. International is handling the British black comedy, Saltburn opened to $1.6 million from handful of markets, including $1.3 million in the U.K., where it is set.
And back in the top 10, awards contender The Holdovers (Focus Features) moved up the chart to No. 6 as it expanded nationwide, earning $2.7 million from 1,478 cinemas for an early domestic total of $8.4 million.
Searchlight’s specialty film Next Goal Wins (Searchlight) came in No. 7 with an opening of $2.5 million from 2,240 theaters.
On Nov. 22, a Wednesday, Apple Original Films and Sony’s Napoleon and Disney Animation’s Wish take a seat at the Thanksgiving holiday table, among other offerings.
This story was originally published at Nov. 18 at 8:14 am.
The upcoming movie “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” is a screen adaptation of the Suzanne Collins book of the same name. The story is a prequel to the main Hunger Games series, but you might be wondering what movies you should watch before seeing this blockbuster (and why).
Do be aware that this article will contain spoilers for the main Hunger Games movie and book series. Consider this your first and last *Spoiler Warning*.
Do You Need to Watch the Hunger Games Movies Before Seeing Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? Answered
The first movie adaptation of the Hunger Games book series came out over a decade ago, meaning even the most die-hard Hunger Games fans from the early 2010s have probably forgotten a few details regarding the story and world.
Since ‘The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ is a prequel, viewers will likely be expected to remember basic details about the world of Panem. If you want to brush up on your Hunger Games knowledge before going into the new movie, rewatching the old ones is a great way to make sure you catch every detail and essential piece of story-building from the new film.
Every Hunger Games Movie in Order
The original Hunger Games book series has three books that were adapted into a total of four movies: The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2. If you’re thinking about rewatching some of the movies but aren’t sure which ones will be the most helpful, here’s a breakdown of each film in the series and why it may be a good idea to watch it again before seeing the prequel.
The Hunger Games (2012)
Image Source: IMDb
As the first movie adaptation of the book series, the original Hunger Games movie is a must-watch before Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
While the main cast of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Effie (Elizabeth Banks), and the rest of this movie’s tributes obviously don’t make their appearance in the prequel, this movie also serves to introduce the character of Coriolanus Snow. Played by Donald Sutherland here, his character acts as the star of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, with his younger self Tom Blyth in the new prequel.
It’s also perfect if you feel like you’ve forgotten all of your Hunger Games facts, as it sets the stage and introduces the viewers to the world of Panem. All of the basics of the series’ premise, from the Games to Tributes and the conflicts bubbling beneath the surface.
It’s a great place to start and will give your brain a quick refresh on the world and characters that are key to the series’ premise.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Source: Lionsgate
The second movie adaptation follows Katniss and Peeta after their explosive victory in the 74th Hunger Games, their forced involvement in the next 75th Hunger Games, as well as the rapidly growing rebellion in Panem.
This movie also follows President Snow, exposing an even crueler side of him as he attempts to suppress the rebellion with any means necessary. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will likely explore many aspects of Panem’s society that made the future rebellion inevitable—as well as how Snow interacted with the world and how that shaped how he eventually led the nation—so.
The interactions between Katniss and Snow during this movie likewise give fascinating insight into Snow’s character, allowing viewers to learn much more about him than they did in the first movie.
If you’re binging the entire Hunger Games series before going into The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, then this movie is essential viewing and will give you a great reminder as to some of the details on Snow’s characters that will be nice to know when going into the prequel.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
Source: IMDb
Following her rescue from the Quarter Quell in the previous movie, the first part of the final book’s movie adaptations focuses on Katniss after the destruction of District 12.
The movie follows the protagonist’s struggles to adjust to life after the games, her new life in District 13, and her new role as the symbol of the Rebellion. Peeta, meanwhile, has been captured and brainwashed by President Snow.
While this movie focuses on significant plot points regarding Snow, it focuses more on introducing the character of Alma Coin, who serves as the leader of District 13.
It’s also important to note that while Snow is undoubtedly an important character in Mockingjay Part 1, his role is mostly reserved for scenes where he’s seen trying to suppress the rebellion, and character exploration moments stay focused more on the former tributes, residents of District 13, and Alma Coin.
If you want to watch the rebellion unfold, you’ll want to watch this movie. But if you’re more interested in content focusing on Snow as a character, this movie could probably be skipped.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)
Source: IMDb
Mockingjay Part 2 was the last Hunger Games movie released before the upcoming Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
The final movie follows Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Finnick, and other characters as they attempt to overthrow President Snow and his regime once and for all. It also focuses on Katniss’ final actions as a symbol of the rebellion and the choices she makes for the betterment of the future of Panem. As a finale to the series, this movie wraps the story up nicely, depicting both the end of Panem as we knew it and President Snow himself.
If The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is going to show audiences the beginning of Snow’s character arc, then watching this movie is essential for seeing the end of his arc. The interactions between Snow, Katniss, Peeta, and the rest of the game survivors in this movie are exciting and give some great insight into how the events of the series have impacted all the characters and their values.
If you want to make sure you’re not missing out on any foreshadowing during The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, you’re going to want to ensure you watch the final movie of the main series before diving in.
About the author
Lina Hassen
Lina is a freelance news writer for Twinfinite. She loves JRPGs, slice-of-life simulator games, rhythm games, and playing Tekken with friends. She is currently receiving her degree in International Relations-Political Science with a minor in Media Studies at Wellesley College.
“I don’t sing when I’m told. I sing when I’ve got something to say,” Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird declares in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. As the film’s title would suggest, music plays a central role in the new Hunger Games prequel, which is set roughly 60 years before the events of the original trilogy.
When she’s selected to participate in the 10th annual Hunger Games, Lucy Gray’s act of defiance is to sing “Nothing You Can Take From Me.” When she—spoiler alert—returns from the arena, she croons a song called “Pure as the Driven Snow.” At another point, Lucy Gray offers the original version of “The Hanging Tree,” a folk song Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss would eventually perform in 2014’s Mockingjay: Part 1.
Readers of Suzanne Collins’s novels will recognize the lyrics to Lucy Gray’s songs, which are largely taken directly from the book. But their melodies were written by executive music producer Dave Cobb. “Luckily, they were crazy enough to hire me,” says Cobb, referring to director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson. His songs work in tandem with a film score by James Newton Howard, as well as a soundtrack that features artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Molly Tuttle, who plays Lucy Gray’s guitar in the film.
Though Cobb revisited the existing films, none of them have much in-universe music. He got more guidance through expansive conversations with the filmmakers and with Collins, who he says is “the most brilliant person I’ve ever talked to.”
“When you talk to her, this isn’t in a book—this is a universe she’s created,” he explains. “When she’s telling you about each character in the series, she’s got a backstory behind a backstory, behind a backstory.” Collins told Cobb that her version of dystopian Appalachia was inspired by several sources, including the English Civil War and turn-of-the-century mountain music. “Suzanne is a historian. I’m a history buff,” Cobb continues. “If you talk about the history, I’m in. I can read for days about it. She definitely schooled me, and I went down a deep dive.”
That excavation process also involved a dive into his own personal history. “My granddaddy was a bluegrass musician. I grew up Pentecostal…. My grandmother was a preacher, and she sang like Snow White.” It’s a funny reference, he knows, because Zegler herself plays the princess in Disney’s upcoming Snow White remake—“I think a lot of these songs all harken back to hymnals,” says Cobb, noting that Collins was also well-versed in this genre. “She was a country music DJ at one time, so she knew exactly what she was talking about.”
Though he was guided by the folksy mountain music one would expect from Appalachia, Cobb wasn’t allergic to more unconventional influences as well. “There’s a lot of The Smiths in there,” he reveals. “I figure by the time we got to the future, [the characters] probably heard this stuff. It’s definitely a melting pot. We tried to stick to these very traditional roots, but there’s a lot of curveballs.”
In The Hunger Games universe, tributes must face an arena’s worth of trials and terror in a battle to the death. The stars of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, a prequel set about 60 years beforeSuzanne Collins’s original trilogy, were put to their own—admittedly far lower stakes—test by Vanity Fair.
Tom Blyth, who plays a younger version of President Snow in the film, quizzed costars Rachel Zegler and Josh Andrés Rivera, who competed to determine who knows Blyth best. The game starts off on an ironic note when Blyth reveals that his biggest childhood fear is actually in the film’s title. “I was afraid of snakes as a kid because I saw Indiana Jones a lot…and because he was afraid of snakes I think that fear transferred onto me,” he explains.
This phobia didn’t rear its ugly head on set, though, even when two live reptiles were brought in. “Tom, you never let on that you were afraid,” says Zegler, who plays the titular songbird Lucy Gray Baird. “I’m not anymore—I’ve done a lot of therapy with snakes,” Blyth jokingly replies.
Playing fast and loose with their point allotments, Zegler and Rivera (who are a real-life couple) venture their best guess at the Justin Timberlake track Blyth considers his go-to karaoke song and bond over vino-filled dinner parties with their director, Francis Lawrence. “Francis turned Josh into a fake wino,” Blyth quips.
As for the filmmaker: In a separate video Lawrence breaks down scenes from the four Hunger Games films he’s directed, including Snow’s would-be execution in Mockingjay—Part 2. He also explains why “we never actually pointed any real arrows at anybody, ever,” starting with his first film in the franchise, Catching Fire.
By quiz show’s end, Zegler and Rivera flip the script on Blyth to test how well he knows them both, asking about a surprising elementary school stage debut, the unexpected people Zegler called from last year’s Oscars, and who among them owned a physical copy of the Shrek original motion picture soundtrack.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hits theaters on November 17.
Welcome back to the “Hunger Games,” and may the box office odds be ever in your favor.
The latest movie in the Lionsgate YA action franchise, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” has made $5.75 million in previews at the box office. The prequel expected to make around $50 million in its debut this weekend, with some prediction as high as $60 million and some lower at $45 million.
“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” directed by Francis Lawrence and based on the 2020 novel of the same name by “Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins, is the franchise’s first movie in eight years. It jumps back more than 60 years to show what happened at the 10th Hunger Games and follows a young Corioloanus Snow, who would later become president of Panem and make Katniss Everdeen’s life miserable.
The prequel won’t reach the same heights that the original, massively popular “Hunger Games” movies did in the 2010s, but it should stand to do well at the box office. It’s predicted to make $50 million internationally for a worldwide opening of around $100 million, and the film came with a $100 million price tag. The original “Hunger Games” debuted to $152 million in 2012, followed by 2013’s “Catching Fire” ($158 million), 2014’s “Mockingjay Part 1” ($121 million) and 2015’s “Mockingjay Part 2” ($102 million).
The “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” cast includes Tom Blyth as Coriolanus, Rachel Zegler as Hunger Games contestant Lucy Gray Baird, Hunter Schafer, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman and more.
Also stepping into the box office arena are Universal’s animated musical “Trolls Band Together” and Sony’s horror “Thanksgiving.” The “Trolls” sequel made $1.3 million in previews and is expected to make $30 million in its opening. Eli Roth’s Turkey Day slasher made $1 million in previews and is projected for $12 million to $14 million. Last week’s box office champ, Disney’s “The Marvels,” is predicted to drop to $21 million to $23 million in its second weekend.
No, Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t have a cameo appearance. However, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) says her name in the new movie, which hit theaters on Friday, November 17.
While in District 12 with a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), Lucy takes him to a lake where they enjoy a swim and take in the sunshine. Lucy takes a look at a flower that has roots they can eat, noting that it’s not quite ripe enough to snack on yet. She reveals that some people call it “swamp potato,” but she prefers the prettier name: “Katniss.”
Ultimately, the only characters who appear in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes from the original trilogy are Snow — the dictator Katniss eventually fights to overthrow — and his cousin Tigris, the stylist with tiger-like body modifications who helps the rebels sneak into the Capitol.
May the odds be ever in his favor. President Snow is the notorious villain that Hunger Games fans love to hate — and he’s about to get his own movie. Suzanne Collins, who created the hit Hunger Games franchise, penned a prequel novel all about the origins of President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland in the OG movies). The […]
In prequel film, Tigris (Hunter Schafer) doesn’t have any tattoos and is just trying to take care of her and Snow’s grandmother. Meanwhile, Snow is trying to win prize money to pull their family out of poverty while mentoring Lucy in the 10th annual Hunger Games.
It’s the first time mentors have been used, and Snow has plenty of other suggestions to bring in more viewers. However, he isn’t quite the villain that Donald Sutherland played in the original trilogy.
“People think they know the character,” Blyth told Variety earlier this month. “What I hope is that, if not to empathize with him, they understand him a little bit more and understand what makes him tick. And understand what a character like him would have to go through to make him become so evil.”
He continued, “For me, I kind of fell in love with him as a character. I was heartbroken when I had to let him fall off the deep end.”
The odds were in their favor! While some stars fall flat after their big breaks, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth have moved on from the Hunger Games franchise with success. Based on author Suzanne Collins’ young adult books of the same name, 2012’s The Hunger Games, 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2014’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — […]
At the end of the film, Snow completes his inevitable turn into the cold future president and as the title card is shown, the older Snow is not seen. However, the audience hears Sutherland’s voice deliver Snow’s most famous line to Katniss: “It’s the things we love the most that destroy us.”
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Blyth did not chat with Donald Sutherland about the role, as director Francis Lawrence requested he give a fresh take on the character. Zegler, meanwhile, met Jennifer Lawrence after filming.
“Meeting her was like meeting a friend because we have so many mutual friends and I’ve heard so much about her,” Zegler told Access Hollywood on Tuesday, November 13. “Francis, our director, when I told him that we had finally met, he said, ‘Oh finally the two weirdest contacts I have in my phone have collaborated,’ and I take that as a badge of honor truly.”
Social media went into a frenzy when the first trailer forThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesshowed Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird mockingly curtsy the same way Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen did in The Hunger Games.
The curtsy is an iconic moment in the first film of the franchise and marks one of Katniss’ earliest signs of rebellion. It takes place after she shoots an arrow directly into a viewing room with Capitol residents who have come to watch the new tributes hone their talents in training before entering the 74th annual Hunger Games.
For Lucy, it comes after she is reaped for the 10th annual Hunger Games as one of the tributes from District, who goes on to become its first victor — and only victor until Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson in the first franchise) and eventually Katniss and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).
Prequel director Francis Lawrence, who also helmed Catching Fire and both Mockingjay films, told Entertainment Tonight he improvised Lucy’s sassy curtsy while they were filming.
“It was something that I made up on the day and had Rachel do because we’re constantly looking for, in the making of this, little sort of Easter eggs that would excite the fans,” Lawrence told the publication. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really cool. If she does this then, you know, Katniss could have heard generations later about this kind of rebellious, irreverent act of this woman that was a singer and did this sort of bow curtsy at the reaping.’”
He added, “It just gives a different sort of meaning to Katniss’ action, and I think that it’s a really fun element of this movie, to get lots of those moments.”
The director also shared his thoughts on the theory fans have that Lucy and Katniss are related somehow, noting that he and producer Nina Jacobson don’t necessarily believe it. However, he explained that he appreciates that author Suzanne Collins allows fans to come up with their own theories and debate them.
Lawrence and Jacobson were especially interested in exploring Snow’s villain origin story and finding a way to balance sympathizing with someone who seems good despite knowing who he ends up being.
“It was making sure that we got an audience behind it and to empathize and root for a character that they know is so awful in the original stories,” the director explained. “The other tricky bit is that because he’s going to break bad, you want to make sure that even though we have people rooting for him, that we still are seeding in all the elements of ambition, that hunger for power and greed and the darkness, so that when he does go dark, it’s believable and truthful and honest, and you understand it.”
When the new installment in the Hunger Games franchise, a prequel film titled The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes based on Suzanne Collins’s 2020 novel, hits theaters next month, it will adapt a very long book in its entirety. Director Francis Lawrence, who also helmed three of the four original Hunger Games movies, said he learned his lesson after splitting the final Hunger Games book across two movies.
Mockingjay: Part One arrived in theaters in November 2014 and grossed more than $755 million worldwide but was ultimately viewed as an appetizer to the satisfying main course of Mockingjay: Part Two, which debuted in November 2015. The franchise’s final installment earned about $100 million less than Part One at the global box office, suggesting some fans weren’t willing to wait a full year for resolution.
“I totally regret it,” Lawrence told People of stretching the contents of Collins’s book into two films. “I’m not sure everybody does, but I definitely do.” While he originally maintained that the “two halves of Mockingjay had their own separate dramatic questions” and thus deserved individual outings, Lawrence feels differently nearly a decade later. “What I realized in retrospect—and after hearing all the reactions and feeling the kind of wrath of fans, critics and people at the split—is that I realized it was frustrating. And I can understand it.”
Lawrence and Lionsgate were ostensibly following the lead of its YA book-to-movie forebears like Twilight and Harry Potter, which also split their final films into two parts. The upside was that “we got more on the screen out of the book than we would’ve in any of the other movies because you’re getting close to four hours of screen time for the final book.”
But the filmmaker says he can see why a year-long wait between movies can feel deceitful. “In an episode of television, if you have a cliff-hanger, you have to wait a week, or you could just binge it and then you can see the next episode. But making people wait a year, I think, came across as disingenuous, even though it wasn’t,” Lawrence said. “Our intentions were not to be disingenuous.”
His peace offering ahead of the prequel? The longest Hunger Games movie ever made, at a runtime of 2 hours and 36 minutes. “I would never let them split the book in two,” Lawrence said. “There was never a real conversation about it. It’s a long book, but we got so much shit for splitting Mockingjay into two—from fans, from critics, from everybody—that I was like, ‘No way. I’ll just make a longer movie.’”
And a lengthier movie ye shall receive when The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes debuts in theaters November 17.
Beyond this, Songbirds and Snakes explores his relationship with mockingjays, Districts 12 and 13, and power. Is his cruelty a byproduct of nature or nurture? How is his rise to power tied to one of YA’s most unforgettable dystopian worlds? As the story sets out to explore these questions, Snow’s journey becomes less a mystery than a morality tale about how deadly self-victimization can be when deployed by the privileged.
Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird
Katniss wasn’t the first girl from District 12 to cause trouble for Coriolanus Snow. West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler stars as Lucy Gray Baird, the young woman selected to compete as District 12’s female tribute in the 10th Hunger Games. Her relationship with Snow casts a new light on his relationship, decades later, with the girl on fire.
Lucy Gray is a member of the Covey, a group that had, before the war, roved the country. When her name is called at the reaping, her reaction catches everyone by surprise—and incidentally convinces Snow that she’s anything but a lost cause. Though she isn’t as prepared for the Games as Katniss was, she’s more clever than most presume, and her and Snow’s united showmanship changes the Games’ dynamics forever.
Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird stands in the Hunger Games arena.
Lionsgate
Hunter Schafer as Tigris Snow
Tigris Snow, portrayed by Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer, is one of the few characters to appear in both the main series and the prequel—though we wouldn’t fault you for forgetting her. In Mockingjay, Tigris is a Capitol ally who aids Katniss’s squad on their quest to assassinate the president. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it’s revealed that president is her cousin. Tigris acts as both a confidant and foil to Coriolanus for much of the novel, with her compassion at odds with his burgeoning ruthlessness.
Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth
Snow is, obviously, not the only mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. Josh Andrés Rivera (another West Side Story alum) portrays Sejanus Plinth, another foil to the future president. The Plinth family is not Capitol-born; rather, they are “new money,” having made their wealth during the war. Having been raised in District 2, Sejanus has a moral compass that most of his classmates lack. Despite that, he and Snow form a genuine, if not slightly contentious, friendship.
Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman
An ancestor of Stanley Tucci’s charismatic host, Jason Schwartzman’s Lucky Flickerman is given the task of presenting this iteration of the Hunger Games. As he inadvertently oversees the evolution of the Games, he injects the story with a dark humor and serves as a clear indication of what Capitol society will become.
Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom
Casca Highbottom is both dean of the Academy and the man credited with creating the Hunger Games. As such, he’s involved in the mentorship program that Snow and his classmates partake in—though he’s noticeably a shell of the man he once was. Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, Cyrano) portrays him.
Viola Davis as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
If Lucy Gray is the angel on Snow’s shoulder, Dr. Volumnia Gaul is the devil on his other. Gaul, as played by Viola Davis, is the head Gamemaker and mastermind behind the Capitol’s experimental weapons division. (Think Wes Bentley’s Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, or Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Plutarch Heavensbee in Catching Fire—but with a much more imaginative mean streak.) Like Highbottom, Gaul is closely involved with the mentorship program.
What’s going to happen?
Though The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a “return to the Games,” it isn’t necessarily a survival thriller in the vein of the original story. The Games depicted in the prequel are far from the futuristic, awe-inspiring spectacles we’ve already seen onscreen. In fact, they take place entirely in a condemned amphitheater. Still, it’s a brutal tale, and tributes’, mentors’, and advisers’ lives are on the line. There are gnarly deaths (hey, Panem hasn’t changed that much) and plot twists likely to make your head spin. As the story of how the Games came to be, it centers on a cast of characters whose fates are anything but set in stone.
So, without giving too much away, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes starts before the reaping and continues after a victor is crowned. It takes us through the Capitol, into the arena, and, yes, back to District 12. It is a story of privilege, of exploitation, and of power. It is the story of Coriolanus Snow. And you already know the ending.
Though fans of the attractive actors were presumably delighted to see them kiss in 2014′s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1,” Hemsworth was anything but. The Australian famously revealed as much on “The Tonight Show” that year.
“Any time I had to kiss Jennifer was pretty uncomfortable,” Hemsworth told host Jimmy Fallon.
“When you look at it on the outside, it looks like a great picture,” he continued. “She’s one of my best friends. I love her. But if we had a kissing scene, she would make a point of eating garlic or tuna fish or something that was disgusting.”
Lawrence, who is currently promoting the R-rated sex comedy “No Hard Feelings,” addressed her former co-star’s claim on Thursday’s episode of the online show “Hot Ones.”
“It was not intentional,” she told host Sean Evans through rather revealing laughter. “It was just what I was eating, and then we’d kiss. He should just get over it.”
The actors’ decade-spanning gibes seem to be nothing but playful banter, however. Lawrence previously praised Hemsworth in an interview with Nylon in 2014, saying that he “taught me how to be fair and to stand up for myself.”
Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth became close friends while working on “The Hunger Games.”
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Getty Images
“I’m a wimp about standing up for myself and Liam is always fair,” she told the outlet. “He’s always on time, he’s always doing his job, and he’s good about making sure that things stay fair. He’s teaching me to toughen up a little bit. That was important, I need that.”
Lawrence also told Nylon that she never expected to “have a man this good-looking ever be my best friend.”
“The boys and I would always go back to our hotel and just drink whiskey and get stoned,” Lawrence told The New York Times last year about Hemsworth and fellow “Hunger Games” actor Josh Hutcherson.
“I don’t do it anymore, I’m a mom!” she was quick to add.
The actor told Variety in an article published Friday that she’d “totally” return to the “The Hunger Games” film franchise as character Katniss Everdeen if given the opportunity.
“If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100 percent,” she said when asked if she was interested in returning to the role.
Lawrence famously starred in all four “Hunger Games” installments. The first movie premiered in 2012. She will not appear in an upcoming prequel for the franchise, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” which is set to hit theaters in November.
Jennifer Lawrence at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, May 21, 2023. in Cannes, France. “If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100 percent,” she said when asked if she was interested in returning to the “Hunger Games” role.
But Lawrence may need to trade in her flip-flops if she plans to pick up a bow and arrow anytime soon.
Lawrence, who stars in the upcoming comedy “No Hard Feelings,” was praised for wearing flip-flops on the festival’s red carpet. Some people apparently thought the actor was protesting the festival, which has been accused of encouraging women to wear heels.
“I was not making a political statement, not that I wouldn’t,” she told Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, later adding, “My shoes were a size too big.”
She said, “I put on the flip-flops, and then everybody’s like, ‘What a statement! Wow!’”
