Lionsgate announced today at the end of their CinemaCon session that the Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, will finally hit theaters on November 17, 2023.
This date is the same corridor before Thanksgiving that the Hunger Games sequels Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part One and Mockingjay Part Two opened.
CinemaCon 2022: Full coverage by Deadline
As previously announced, the picture will be directed by these sequels’ filmmaker, Francis Lawrence. Franchise producer Nina Jacobson and her producing partner Brad Simpson along with Lawrence. Written by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, based on her best-selling novel, Michael Arndt (the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine, and co-author of Catching Fire) and Michael Lesslie.
Collins and Tim Palen will also serve as EPs.
The prequel to the $3 billion series takes place years before the original films. We see 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, who would become the tyrannical President of Panem. Young Snow sees a chance for a twist in fortune when he is chosen to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girl from impoverished District 12.
Currently booked for November 17 next year is Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls World 3 and Paramount’s John Krasinski is directing Ryan Reynolds’ feature film If.