‘Hunger Games’ Prequel ‘The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes’ Gets 2023 Release Date – CinemaCon

Lionsgate announced at the end of their CinemaCon session today that Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will finally hit theaters on November 17, 2023.

That date is the same pre-Thanksgiving corridor where The Hunger Games sequels Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part One and Mockingjay Part Two opened.

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The pic, as previously announced, is directed by those sequels’ filmmaker Francis Lawrence. Franchise producer Nina Jacobson and her producing partner Brad Simpson back, along with Lawrence. Scribes are Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins, based on her bestselling novel; Michael Arndt, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine and one of the writers of Catching Fire ; and Michael Lesslie.

Collins and Tim Palen also will serve as EPs.

The prequel to the $3 billion series is set years prior to the original movies. We see the 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, who would become the tyrannical President of Panem. The young Snow sees a chance for a change in fortunes when he is chosen to be mentor to Lucy Gray Baird, the tribute from impoverished District 12.

Currently booked on Nov. 17 next year is DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls World 3 and Paramount’s John Krasinski directed  Ryan Reynolds feature If.