It feels like 2012 again: there’s an election on the horizon, a new Hunger Games movie is coming out, and we’re in the middle of a Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson renaissance. Lawrence made waves in June 2023 with her stunning red carpet looks and hilarious performance in the raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings. Hutcherson has been making headlines for his starring role in the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie adaptation that came out on Oct. 27. The stars may have come back to movie theater screens this year, but there’s one upcoming movie you won’t see them in: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
Lawrence and Hutcherson gained global fame for playing star-crossed lovers Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games franchise’s first four films. Now that the franchise is adding a new film to its lineup, fans are secretly hoping for their faves to make a cameo. I’ve got good and bad news for you. The bad news is that The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes takes place 64 years before Katniss and Peeta first compete in the Games, so there’s absolutely no way they could be in this movie. The good news? You’ve got a whole new cast to fall in love with.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes tells the story of the 10th Hunger Games. Tom Blyth plays a young Coriolanus Snow (AKA Panem’s future President Snow), who mentors District 12’s female tribute, a singer-songwriter named Lucy Gray Baird (played by Rachel Zegler). Zegler’s real-life boyfriend, Josh Andrés Rivera, plays Snow’s friend Sejanus Plinth. Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage round out the cast as Capitol professors slash Gamemakers. So yeah, the Hunger Games franchise is in good hands.
Though Katniss won’t be in Songbirds & Snakes, there’s still hope that she may come back to our screens someday! Lawrence told Variety in June 2023 that she’d be “totally” down to reprise her role; “If Katniss could ever come back to my life, 100 percent.” Hutcherson said almost the exact same thing to ET back in 2020.
This doesn’t mean Lawrence and Hutcherson will get the chance to come back, though. The Hunger Games franchise’s producer, Nina Jacobson, told Yahoo Entertainment that Katniss would only return to the big screen if author Suzanne Collins writes another Hunger Games novel about her – which she probably won’t. “Honestly, as much as I love Katniss, I think her story is complete. And I think that Suzanne feels that her story is complete. But if that changes, and Suzanne has something she wants to say, and it involves Katniss, then I would be thrilled,” Jacobson said.
Don’t be too sad, Everlark shippers! The last time we saw Katniss and Peeta on screen together in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2, they ended the series on a really wholesome note. I can’t promise the same for Coriolanus and Lucy Gray, but Blyth, Zegler, and Rivera’s off-screen friendship is making me even more excited to see their on-screen chemistry play out in theaters on Nov. 17.