The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesis ready to bring fans back to the world ofThe Hunger Gameswith a new story that takes place way before Katniss Everdeen was even born.
The film is set during the tenth celebration of the Huger Games, when the goverment of Panem is looking for new ways to promote th televised punishment they’ve created for the Districts, to make them attractive to the viewers. That’s why students from The Academy, where the young men and women from the most poweful families from The Capitol asist, are asigned to mentor the tributes that will participate in the games.
Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth, is trying to help his family after a huge finantial dropout by making his Tribute win. Lucy Grey Baird, played by Rachel Zegler, is an artist from District 12 who easily wins over the audience, which seems to make things earier for Snow. Or maybe not.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesalso stars Viola Davis as the Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul, Peter Dinlage as Dean Casca Highbottom, Hunter Schafer from Euphoria as Tigris Snow, Josh Andrés Rivera as Sejanus Plinth, Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius ‘Lucky’ Flickerman, Ashley Liao, Mackenzie Lansing, Jerome Lance, Knox Gibson, Aamer Hussain and many more. The prequel is directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed the last three films from the original saga.
Related:The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Introduces New Locations From the World of The Hunger Games
Back in the days,The Hunger Gamesjoined a trend inaugurated byHarry Potter, dividing its last book into two parts while adapting into the cinematographic format. And whileThe Ballad of Songbirdsand Snakes won’t follow that path, it will set a new record for the franchise when it comes to the runtime of the movie.
According to the site The Movie DB, the film has a duration of 2 hours and 45 minutes, way longer than the 2 hours and 26 minutes ofThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which was the longest until now. As for the books, the second was also the longest in number of pages with 391, butThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakeshas also supprassed it with 527, so it makes a lot of sense for the film to have a higher runtime.
For now, this is the only additional project announced for the franchise, since Suzanne Collins hasn’t written any other books for the saga. However, given that other franchises likeHarry PotterandTwilighthave announced new adaptations as tv series, it wouldn’t be a surprise for Lionsgate to soon reveal major plans for one of their most popular stories, especially since the world ofThe Hunger Gamesoffers many oportunities for spinoffs and prequels, thanks to the long list of characters and plots that haven’t been deeply explored in the original books.
