Overnight and during their presentation at CinemaCon, Lionsgate announced that Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will hit cinemas on November 17, 2023.
That date should sound familiar to fans of the franchise. The release lands squarely in the same window where The Hunger Games sequels Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part One and Mockingjay Part Two opened.
The film will reunite author Suzanne Collins with director Francis Lawrence who helmed three of the four Hunger Games films. Franchise producer Nina Jacobson and her producing partner Brad Simpson back, along with Lawrence. Collins co-pens the film, based on her bestselling novel, with Michael Arndt, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine and one of the writers of Catching Fire ; and Michael Lesslie.
The prequel to the $3 billion series is set years prior to the original movies. We see the 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, who would become the tyrannical President of Panem. The young Snow sees a chance for a change in fortunes when he is chosen to be mentor to Lucy Gray Baird, the tribute from impoverished District 12.
No casting announcements have been confirmed at the time of writing.
