Hunger Games Star Jennifer Lawrence Says Prequel Movie Makes Her “Feel Old”

Jennifer Lawrence is known for an array of roles, including playing Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook, which earned her an Academy Award in 2013. Lawrence started making waves when she landed her first Oscar nomination for Winter’s Bone in 2010 and when she first played Raven/Mystique in X-Men: First Class in 2011. However, many would consider the star’s biggest role to be Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games films, which began in 2012. The final movie in the franchise was released in 2015, and now they’re making a prequel based on Suzanne Collins’ book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. During a recent interview with The New York Times, Lawrence admitted that the prequel is making her feel old.

“That makes me feel old as mold,” Lawrence shared. “I remember being 21 and thinking, ‘My God, one day they’ll redo and remake them. But I’ll be so old by then! I’ll be dead!’” She previously explained, “Franchises are so fun. I could never do one now ’cause I’m just too old and brittle.”

Who Is Starring in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he sees a chance for a change in fortune when he is chosen to be a mentor to Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the girl tribute from the impoverished District 12. The cast for the new movie is quite stacked and keeps on growing. In addition to Blyth and Zegler, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to feature big names such as Viola Davis (Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul), Peter Dinklage (Casca Highbottom), Jason Schwartzman (Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman), Hunter Schafer (Tigris Snow), and Josh Andrés Rivera (Sejanus Plinth). 

The movie will also include Fionnula Flanagan as Grandma’am, young Coriolanus Snow’s strict grandmother. Isobel Jesper Jones is playing Mayfair Lipp, the daughter of the mayor of District 12. Honor Gillies will be making her professional acting debut as Barb Azure. Eike Onyambu has been cast as Tam Amber, Konstantin Taffet will be playing Clerk Carmine, Burn Gorman is Commander Hoff, Scott Folan is Beanpole, Carl Spencer is Smiley, and Michael Greco and Daniela Grubert have been cast as Strabo Plinth and Mrs. Plinth, the wealthy parents to Sejanus Plinth, Coriolanus’s best friend.

Previously announced cast members also include Nick Benson, Laurel Marsden, Lilly Cooper, Luna Steeples, and Hiroki Berrecboth. Benson will play Jessup, a tribute from District 12 alongside Zegler’s Lucy; Marsden will play Mayfair Lipp, who places Lucy Gray’s name into contention for the tenth Hunger Games; Cooper will play Arachne Crane, mentor to a tribute from District 10; Steeples will play Dill, tribute from District 11; and Berrecloth will play Treech, a tribute from District 7.  

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to open in theaters on November 17, 2023.