The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Won't Try to Duplicate Past Films

By Timothy Adams

Lionsgate states it isn't looking to replicate the success of its Hunger Games movies with the upcoming prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The movie is taking part in Lionsgate's presentation for CineEurope over in Barcelona, where exhibitors got a new look at the highly-anticipated prequel with a behind-the-scenes look and new footage. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes takes place 64 years before the events of the original The Hunger Games film, with Tom Blyth playing a young Coriolanus Snow before the character would go on to become the President of Panem. Even though The Hunger Games movies were such a cash cow for Lionsgate, the studio isn't trying to replicate its success.

According to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes producer Nina Jacobson (via Deadline), the movie "doesn't feel like it's trying to duplicate the past films." She added, "It's a new story, with new ground and new characters. We were able to create a completely different visual language… one that is still recognizably Panem, but also different and fresh."

Director Francis Lawrence added, "This is the kind of playground that doesn't come along very often, so when you have a chance to return, it's enormously gratifying." Francis also directed the last three Hunger Games films: 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, and 2015's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Is "Grittier" Than Previous Films

While we know The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes won't look to replicate its predecessors, Lionsgate has previously admitted that it will be "grittier" than its other movies.

Director Francis Lawrence participated in a Q&A about The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes after the film's first footage debuted at CinemaCon. He explained that this story will be even "grittier" than the Hunger Games tales we're used to.

"One of the things that really interested me in the novel itself was just the scope of the story," Lawrence said. "And the fact that it's an origin story not just of a character that we all know from the other series, but the origin of Panem and the origin of the Games. To be able to go back and kind of revisit what the Capital might look like not long after a war in this reconstruction era."

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"It felt fresh, and it felt new, and the tone is different, and I think the tone is a little grittier and I would even say a little more somehow authentic," Lawrence added.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opens in theaters internationally on November 15 and in North America on November 17th.

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