Original Hunger Games Star Reveals Their Condition for Returning to Franchise
Josh Hutcherson says he'd reprise his role of Peeta but only if everyone else came back, too.
The latest entry in The Hunger Games franchise, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, opened in theaters last November and took viewers into the world of Panem decades before Katniss and Peeta's story, revealing the origin story of Coriolanus Snow as well as the story of Lucy Gray, the first victor from District 12 whose games were wiped from the record. But while The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes took fans to the past, Hunger Games fans are also still hopeful that there might be future stories to tell as well, even those that pick up more of Peeta and Katniss' tale and now, Peeta actor Josh Hutcherson is opening up about his condition for returning to the franchise.
Speaking with Screen Rant, Hutcherson said he'd be willing to come back and revisit Peeta — but the cast of the first films, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, has to be involved.
"Absolutely. Absolutely," he said when asked if he'd want to revisit Peeta. "Getting me and Jen, Liam, Woody, and Elizabeth. If we get the whole gang back together, I'm in 100 percent."
Will There Be More The Hunger Games Movies?
At this point, it doesn't seem very likely that there will be additional The Hunger Games movies. Author Suzanne Collins, who wrote all of the books the films are based on has not written any novels that tell a story past Mockingjay, which — in the novel — jumped the story two decades ahead to reveal Katniss and Peeta to be married with two children and the Hunger Games now abolished. Additionally, film franchise director Francis Lawrence has said that any future installments would have to be rooted in an idea from Collins herself.
"I liked being part of the series originally because the stories are great," Lawrence explained. "But what was always gratifying was that they were always about something. Suzanne always writes from a thematic foundation. The original ones were all about the consequences of war. [Songbirds and Snakes is] about the state of nature. That's what makes them feel rich and not superficial, and I think it's why they've stood the test of time, honestly... If Suzanne has another thematic idea that she feels fits into the world of Panem — whether that's with new people [or] familiar characters [like] Finnick, Haymitch, whoever — I'd be really interested in looking at it and being a part of it. But I don't have any pull of just going, 'I would love to do Finnick's games.' He's a great character, but what's the thematic underpinnings that make it worth telling and relevant?"
What Is The Hunger Games Prequel About?
In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem's attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy's race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.
"I don't think it was really anything that we fought to keep in," director Francis Lawrence told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. "I think the trick was figuring out how to keep as much of the information in the story as possible, but we had to compress it because this is the longest book in the series. And so, making sure that we can get it down to a feature-length, that was just the tricky part."