Skip to main content

Is Jennifer Lawrence returning to The Hunger Games franchise?

In 2012, Jennifer Lawrence was already a star on the rise thanks to her Oscar-nominated turn in Winter’s Bone and her starring role as Mystique in X-Men: First Class. However, Lawrence’s career reached even greater heights when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Lawrence reprised her role for three sequels, which adapted the remaining two novels in Collins’ trilogy. Those films not only firmly established Lawrence as a box-office draw, but they also made her an icon in the Young Adult film genre.

Lawrence has since moved on from the franchise, and she earned an Oscar for Best Actress for her starring turn in Silver Linings Playbook. But despite leaving Katniss behind eight years ago, there is still interest in seeing Lawrence revisit one of her most famous roles. While promoting her latest film, No Hard Feelings, the question of a potential Hunger Games return was directly posed to Lawrence. And she gave a fairly definitive answer about her feelings for the character that helped make her a superstar.

Recommended Videos

Is Jennifer Lawrence returning to The Hunger Games franchise?

Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games.
Lionsgate

During a recent interview with Variety, Lawrence was asked if she would be willing to reprise her role as Katniss in the future. And her response was emphatically positive.

“Oh, my God – totally!” exclaimed Lawrence. “If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100%.” She also added that her “producing partner just clutched her heart [off camera].”

Is there a sequel to The Hunger Games novels?

hunger games mockingjay
Image used with permission by copyright holder

There is not a Hunger Games sequel beyond the third novel, Mockingjay, which was adapted as two movies. While Collins has written a fourth novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it serves as a prequel to The Hunger Games trilogy.

What happened to Katniss at the end of The Hunger Games trilogy?

Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games.
Lionsgate

Despite leading the rebel districts to victory over President Snow, Katniss was traumatized by her ordeal. After narrowly escaping prosecution for assassinating the power-hungry President Coin, Katniss retreated to District 12 and retired to live a quiet life alongside Peeta, whom she later married. In the decades that followed, Katniss and Peeta had two children, but she remained haunted by the things she did during the Hunger Games and the rebellion.

What is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes about?

A boy looks into the eyes of a girl alongside a fence in The Hunger Games prequel.
Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes / Murray Close

The upcoming film adaptation takes place decades before the first Hunger Games movie. It follows a young Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow (Tom Blyth) as he mentors a young woman from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), for the 10th annual Hunger Games. Snow’s alliance with Lucy will also pave the way for his eventual rise to power as the President of Panem.

Lionsgate will release The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in theaters on Friday, November 17.

Topics
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
5 best death game movies you should watch right now
Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games.

In the realm of the greatest thriller and horror movies is a subgenre that has grown in popularity over the years – the "death game" films. These are brutal and often disturbing works that thrust characters into ruthless games of survival, with only the most cunning, creative, or desperate players coming out alive. There are some standouts from the niche that are critically acclaimed thanks to their uniqueness, complexity, or bold genre-defining concepts that would go on to shape and influence modern death game movies.

From controversial classics like Battle Royale to beloved blockbusters like The Hunger Games, the best death game movies depict violent battles bound by twisted sets of rules that ensure there will be bloodshed. These adrenaline-pumping films can get viewers invested in the characters' fates and lives, which are inevitably cut short when the games begin.
Ready or Not (2019)

Read more
5 Jennifer Lawrence movies you should watch
Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings.

After a four-year absence, Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence is back on the big screen. Her R-rated comedy, No Hard Feelings, has received mostly positive reviews, with critics agreeing she is back in full form. Lawrence, the second-youngest Best Actress winner in history, is among her generation's most acclaimed and beloved stars. She rose to prominence more than a decade ago thanks to her role in the game-changing YA franchise The Hunger Games.

In her relatively short, but varied and successful career, Lawrence has starred in numerous projects, from big-screen tentpoles to small independent dramas and critically acclaimed studio comedies. Many of her films achieved high critical marks and conquered the box office, with a few becoming important parts of 2010s pop culture. So, to commemorate Lawrence's long-awaited return to the silver screen, here are five of Lawrence's best movies that every film aficionado should watch at least once.
Silver Linings Playbook

Read more
The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes gets first trailer
A boy looks into the eyes of a girl alongside a fence in The Hunger Games prequel.

Head back to Panem and discover the origins of a young Coriolanus Snow (Billy the Kid's Tom Blyth), decades before he would rule as the oppressive president of the nation, in the first trailer for the prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The film is based on the novel of the same name by The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins.

Set 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games, the film follows an 18-year-old Snow, who is looking for a purpose as he tries to restore relevancy to his disgraced family in the Capitol. Ahead of the 10th Annual Hunger Games, Snow is assigned to mentor the female tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird (West Side Story's Rachel Zegler). As Hunger Games co-creator Casca Highbottom (Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage) tells Snow in the trailer, a mentor's job is to "turn these children into spectacles, not survivors." During the reaping ceremony, Baird boldly sings and curtsies to the crowd, reminding fans of another defiant District 12 tribute, Katniss Everdeen, who would unite the nation years later.

Read more