• The Hunger Games trilogy was published in 2008.
• The first full-length film came out two years later.
• Francis Lawrence felt he was putting Katniss’ world behind him.

Director Francis Lawrence felt he was putting Katniss’ world behind after directing three of the four films and washed his hands of the sacrificed tributes.

The publishing of novels happened quickly, and the first full-length movie starring Jennifer Lawrence as the rebel Katniss Everdeen hit theatres in 2012, just two years after Collins’ trilogy’s concluding book was published, with her Battle Royale for Teens trilogy The Hunger Games published in 2008, author Suzanne Collins revolutionized the YA literary world.

Lawrence said to Steve Weintraub that he, too, was taken aback when Collins revealed she wasn’t quite done with Panem.

Fans devoured the dystopian world of The Hunger Games as it was brought to life over the course of four films, and when The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’s epilogue played out on the big screen, fans believed Panem, the sovereign state that sacrifices its children in the name of patriotism, had come to an end.

In a same vein, filmmaker Lawrence believed that particular chapter of his life had come to an end. Lawrence spent years creating the worlds of Katniss, President Snow (Donald Sutherland), and the tragic tributes after taking over the franchise from Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) with the sequel Catching Fire and the sequels Mockingjay’s Part 1 and 2.

Lawrence told Collider how he first learned about the impending prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which he’s signed on to helm, during an interview for his most recent Netflix production Slumberland.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Collins’ nearly finished prequel book that will examine the life of the ruthless President Coriolanus Snow and how the Hunger Games came to be the carnage fans are familiar with, is what he claims Collins spoke with him about in the fall before the year 2020.

Lawrence, who maintains that after completing her trilogy, was astonished by the news “There was no real motivation for Suzanne Collins to write [a prequel]. She didn’t appear to be planning to write any more.”

In actuality, he received the call while working on a commercial in South Korea. Lawrence was confident that this would be an interesting return to the universe after reading the first manuscript.

It took the entire production of Pandemic and Slumberland, up to practically Christmas last year, the actor continues, “to get the script in the proper position where it seemed like we were doing it right.”

Ballad is set more than six decades before the first Hunger Games. The Capitol is still in a post-war Panem, thus it lacks some of the garish splendour of the first three films, but the incredibly devoted and patriotic residents still enforce the cruel social hierarchy.

Coriolanus Snow, the young man who will one day grow up to be the evil, rose-chopping president played by Sutherland in the movies, is the main subject of the story.

The Games are a little more primitive than the customized killing arenas of Katniss’ time because they have only been around for 10 years.

Coriolanus meets young Lucy Gray Baird of District 12 in this capacity, which he views as a tremendous honour.

Coriolanus finds himself doubting all he has ever known when he and the other person learn they may aid one another in winning the Games. Regarding the movie version, Lawrence claims:

“I’m really excited about the cast. What I’m really excited about, and I really started to feel it as I was making, is that it feels really fresh. It feels very different, in that there really is a unique sort of aesthetic to it because it takes place 65 years before. The characters feel very different. There are still very familiar touchpoints. It very much feels like a Hunger Games movie, but at the same time feels really fresh and unique, and thematically unique. Yeah, I’m really excited about it. I think it’s going to be quite good.”

The cast has gradually been revealed over the past few months to build anticipation. Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, along with Academy Award winner Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, and Jason Schwartzman, take on the roles of Coriolanus and Lucy, respectively.

On November 17, 2023, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released in theatres.

Soon, more from Steve’s unique conversation with Lawrence will be available.

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