Hunger Games fans, get ready to go back into the arena! The prequel film, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, is bringing Panem back to the big screen for the first time in eight years. Set 64 years before Katniss and Peeta’s first Games, Songbirds & Snakes follows a young Coriolanus Snow — aka Panem’s future President Snow — as he mentors District 12’s female tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, in the 10th annual Hunger Games.
The movie comes out on Nov. 17, but fans are already gearing up to buy their tickets for the next installment. I wouldn’t start blocking off your calendar just yet. When it comes to a Songbirds & Snakes sequel, the odds may or may not be in your favor. Spoiler warning: Spoilers for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follow.
The upcoming movie is based on Suzanne Collins’ 2020 novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The book is divided into three parts: “The Mentor,” “The Prize,” and “The Peacekeeper.” The first two parts deal with the Games themselves while the third part details what happens after the victor is announced.
Coriolanus’ tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, wins the Hunger Games — but only because he cheated. After the Games, Lucy Gray goes back to District 12 and reunites with Coriolanus, who was exiled from the Capitol and forced into being a Peacekeeper. The couple runs away together, but after discovering that Coriolanus murdered three people (remember that he is President Snow, after all), Lucy Gray runs away from him.
The end of the book leaves Lucy Gray’s fate a mystery. Coriolanus might have shot her in the woods (again, don’t let Tom Blyth’s face fool you!) or she managed to escape. Either way, any records of Lucy Gray and the 10th Hunger Games were scrubbed from Panem’s history. Coriolanus goes back to the Capitol to study under the villainous Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul, setting him on the path to becoming the President Snow we love to hate 64 years later.
So, will Collins write a sequel to fill in the time gap? Probably not. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ ending is solid, with Coriolanus’ character arc clearly showing his moral descent that bleeds into his presidency years later. There’s been no official announcement of a second Songbirds and Snakes novel in the works, and since the movie’s trailer shows events from all three parts of the book, it doesn’t look like it’s getting a sequel either.
That doesn’t mean the Hunger Games franchise is over, though! The films’ producer Nina Jacobson is down to make more Hunger Games movies — as long as Collins writes more books. “Do I think she will write more books in the world? I do, and I hope she will. Do I have any idea what they’ll be? Not really!” Jacobson told Polygon in September 2023.
If Collins were to write another Hunger Games book, it would either pick up Coriolanus’ story where Songbirds and Snakes left off or follow a different character completely. Fans have been eager to see Haymitch or Finnick’s Games play out on screen ever since the original trilogy hinted at how they managed to win.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes came out 10 years after Mockingjay was released, so any addition to the Hunger Games series is likely years away. Good thing our Hunger Games movie drought ends on Nov. 17!