The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Movie Cast, Plot and Everything to Know

Key Facts

• Jason Schwartzman will play Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, the host of the 10th Hunger Games and ancestor to Caesar Flickerman (7/4/2022).
• Josh Andrés Rivera will play Sejanus Plinth, a close friend of young Coriolanus Snow, and the mentor to a tribute from District 2 (6/26/2022).
• Jim Miller, the Lionsgate executive who has served as the studio's project executive on all of the franchise's films, will oversee the production (5/9/2020).
• Author Suzanne Collins will write the film's treatment and Michael Arndt, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine and a nominee for his work on Toy Story 3, will adapt the screenplay, after previously serving as one of the writers of Catching Fire (5/9/2020).
• Lionsgate has re-enlisted several members of the franchise's creative team and some of the industry's most sought-after filmmakers. Color Force's Nina Jacobson, who has produced all of the films in the franchise, will produce the film adaptation of the new novel along with her partner Brad Simpson, who will also be involved in a producorial capacity. Francis Lawrence, who directed Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1, and Mockingjay Part 2, will return to the director's chair (5/9/2020).
• One of the most eagerly awaited publishing events of the year, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be published by Scholastic simultaneously in print, digital and audio formats in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand on May 19 (5/9/2020).
• As Suzanne Collin's is planning a May 2020 release of her prequel novel, the studio is "working closely with her on the movie".
• As Lionsgate entertainment vice chairman Michael Burns said, "The one thing that kids say they missed (from the early Hunger Games films) was there was no arenas. If we went backwards there obviously would be arenas." He was referencing the stadiums where children killed each other and noting the prior films only covered the 74th and 75th competitions (Hollywood Reporter, 12/8/15).