Is A Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Sequel Happening?
"Hunger Games" fans returned to Panem in 2023 with the release of the prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," about the teen years of future President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) and his ill-fated romance with folk musician Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). The movie did well enough at the box office and was mostly praised by critics (/Film's review was more mixed) — but is all that enough for a sequel?
Upon the release of "Ballad" in November 2023, several members of the cast and creative team sat down with People magazine to answer this question. The main takeaway from their answers? It depends on Suzanne Collins, author of "The Hunger Games." For reference, "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" is adapted from Collins' eponymous novel (published in 2020), and she's given no indication that she's writing a sequel. Without literary source material, there won't be a film sequel either.
"The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" wasn't advertised with the suggestion of sequels, nor does the film itself hint at any. Snow is on a path to becoming the monster he was when audiences first met him and the film ends with a voiceover from Donald Sutherland (who played Snow in the original "Hunger Games" tetralogy): "It's the things we love most that destroy us."
Lucy Gray Baird's disappearance is not a suggestion that her story will continue either; it instead goes back to Snow's journey and how that unresolved question will always haunt him. In fact, Lucy Gray is named after a William Wordsworth poem about a girl who vanishes in a snowstorm, never to be found — her fate (or lack of it) was written in the stars.
But is that all she wrote?
More Snow falls
Collins hasn't definitely said that she won't write a sequel to "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," she just hasn't said that she will. "I would love to see Snow's rise to power because he's just a great character," producer Nina Jacobson told People. There are 64 more years of Snow's life to fill in, but does Collins agree with Jacobson?
In 2020, Collins told Scholastic: "I have two worlds, the Underland (the world of 'The Underland Chronicles' series) and Panem (the world of 'The Hunger Games'). I use both of them to explore elements of just war theory. When I find a related topic that I want to examine, then I look for the place it best fits. The state of nature debate of the Enlightenment period naturally lent itself to a story centered on Coriolanus Snow."
Collins told the story she wanted to tell in just one book: Snow's character arc in "Songbirds and Snakes" ends with him realizing the Hunger Games are a microcosm of a dog-eat-dog-world. It's a conclusion that's echoed in the film, which is closely faithful to the book.
Jacobson made it clear to Polygon that without Collins involved, there are no more "Hunger Games" movies coming. That being said, money talks. The positive buzz and increased publicity from "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" playing in movie theaters could motivate Collins to find a new topic that interests her and continue Snow's story ... or someone else's.
A Tigris spin-off
In the aforementioned People interview, both Jacobson and director Francis Lawrence (who has directed each "Hunger Games" except the first) suggest the hook of a "Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" follow-up could be shifting the focus to Tigris Snow (Hunter Schafer), Coriolanus' cousin. Tigris (unrecognizable thanks to feline-styled cosmetic surgery) appears in "Mockingjay," the chronological conclusion to "The Hunger Games," where she helps overthrow her cousin. Lawrence explained:
"Part of what's interesting is bringing her in here — selling her as this sister figure, the cousin, how much love they have between the two of them — and then you think of the time jump and how she's actually helping them go after him and kill him. I think there's a really interesting shift there as well as obviously the physical transformation, too."
Schafer sounds like she wouldn't say no to this either, telling Entertainment Weekly: "I want to know what happens, even if I wasn't playing her. I want to know how we get there [to that falling out]."
That said, "Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" already plants the seeds of Tigris' disillusionment. She starts as the angel on Coriolanus' shoulder, but her last line in the movie is a backhanded compliment — telling her cousin he looks just like his father, who was a ruthless military man. Collins may not feel the need to elaborate more on this foregone conclusion.
Other Hunger Games prequels?
Other "Hunger Games" prequels bandied about by the fans include ones centered on Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), Katniss and Peeta's mentor, or Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin), a Hunger Games victor turned revolutionary martyr. But again, as much as Lionsgate probably wants more "Hunger Games" money, these ideas run into the same stonewall: would these stories mean anything beyond a return to Panem for its own sake?
Lawrence explained this when talking to /Film about more "Hunger Games" movies:
"I just love that [Collins] comes up with something thematic and then writes from there. And so it feels like it has just a reason to exist. And so I get asked this a lot, and I know a lot of fans are like, 'Oh, do the Finnick Games, do the Haymitch Games, or let's do a Tigris spinoff.' Or something like that. But it's not just about picking a character and doing a game. Suzanne has to have something to say. I would be happy to go back if she wrote something else."
If you want a more definitive answer on if there'll be more "Hunger Games" movies, you'll have to ask Suzanne Collins.