In 2008 author Suzanne Collins upended the YA world of literature with her Battle Royale-for-teens series The Hunger Games. The turn-around for books was quick, and in 2012, only two years after the final entry of Collins’ trilogy was published, the first feature film starring Jennifer Lawrence as the rebel Katniss Everdeen was released in theaters. After helming three of the four movies, director Francis Lawrence assumed he was leaving Katniss’ world behind, washing his hands of the fallen tributes. Like Hunger Games fans, Lawrence told Collider’s Steve Weintraub, that he was just as surprised when Collins announced she wasn’t quite finished with Panem.
Over the course of four movies, fans devoured the dystopian world of The Hunger Games brought to life, and when the epilogue of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 played out across the big screen fans thought they’d seen the end of Panem, the sovereign state that offers up its children in the name of patriotism. Similarly, director Lawrence also thought that chapter (no pun intended) of his life had come to its close. After taking over the franchise from Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) with the sequel Catching Fire, and the subsequent Mockingjay‘s Part 1 and 2, Lawrence spent years working within the world of Katniss, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the ill-fated tributes.
During his interview with Collider for his most recent Netflix project Slumberland, Lawrence shared with us how he first found out about the franchise’s upcoming prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which he’s onboard to direct. According to him, in the fall prior to 2020, Collins contacted him about her nearly-finished prequel book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which would explore the origin story of the callous President Coriolanus Snow and how the Hunger Games came to be the bloodbath fans are familiar with. The news shocked Lawrence who claims that, following her trilogy, “Suzanne Collins had no interest in really writing [a prequel]. It didn’t seem like she was going to write anything else.” In fact, he was in South Korea working on a commercial when he got the call. After reading through the first manuscript, Lawrence knew this would be a fascinating return to the universe. He adds that, “it took all of the pandemic and all of the shooting of Slumberland, really up until almost Christmastime last year, to get the script in the right place where it felt like we were getting it right.”
Ballad takes place over 6 decades before the events of the first Hunger Games. Still in a post-war Panem, the Capitol isn’t quite to the gaudy glory of the original trilogy, though the very loyal and patriotic people who reside there do uphold the vicious pecking order. The novel focuses mainly on Coriolanus Snow, the boy who one day becomes the diabolical, rose-clipping president portrayed by Sutherland in the films. The Games are still in their infancy, having only been established 10 years prior, and are a bit cruder than the tailored death arenas of Katniss’ time. It’s as a mentor, which Coriolanus believes to be a great honor, that he meets a young District 12 girl named Lucy Gray Baird. When the two discover they can help each other in winning the Games, Coriolanus finds himself questioning all he’s ever known. On the film adaptation, Lawrence says:
“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.”
Over the last few months, the stacked cast has slowly been revealed to ramp up excitement. Playing the roles of Coriolanus and Lucy are Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, respectively, with Academy Award-winner Viola Davis, and Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer and Jason Schwartzman joining the fray.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to release in theaters on November 17, 2023. Look for more from Steve’s exclusive interview with Lawrence soon.
