In November of this year The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be released almost exactly eight years after the most recent and at that time last episode of The hunger Games was released.
The ballad of songbirds and snakes tells the story of the 10th Hunger Games, provides much-anticipated background on how the Games began and developed, and tells the story of the origins of Coriolanus Snow’s villain. Since this story takes place so far back in the history of this world, it won’t feature beloved characters like Katniss and Peeta. Despite this, the chatter around this film has led to a renewed interest in many 2010 dystopian franchises.
The hunger Games
Clearly, fans are dusting off their copy of it The hunger Games and watch movies again. With a prequel due out this year, consuming the original three books or movies will help fans keep a sharp eye out for connections between The hunger Games And The ballad of songbirds and snakes. The resurgence of popularity in the era of TikTok has resulted in very interesting fan theories and explanations of Easter eggs laid by Suzanne Collins.
Although this new episode has created homesickness for The hunger Games, it doesn’t drum up quite as much excitement for itself. The lack of fanfare begs the question: are YA dystopian stories a thing of the past? The 2010s was a breeding ground for book-based movie sagas, but nothing quite like it has been in recent years.
In the 2010s, movies like The Hunger Games, Twilight, The Maze Runner and Divergent were the talk of every high school in America. These movie releases were highly anticipated, publicized, and teens eager to read so they could learn what happens before the next movie comes out. In some cases, these movies even premiered at midnight in movie theaters overflowing with teens wearing sports movie merchandise with their much less enthusiastic parents. With no hope of such an experience in such a long time, the imminent release The ballad of songbirds and snakes causes many to revisit their teen obsession.
The maze runner
That cannot be disputed The hunger Games was the most popular dystopian saga of the 2010s, but The maze runner was a close runner up. These films followed in the dystopian footsteps of their predecessors, but also shared some storytelling similarities.
In The maze runner movies, teens are placed in a dangerous labyrinth similar to the arena in The hunger Games, except that they have no memory of their past lives and their suffering is not for the “benefit” of their people. The second and third terms: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials And Maze Runner: The Death Cure follow the same group as they try to uncover the secret of why they are there. These films have been streamed more than usual and the books they are based on have waiting lists for miles at every library.
The divergent series
Compared with The hunger Games And The maze runner, Divergent might as well have been a flop and possibly the reason why dystopian stories declined in popularity. Originally there were going to be four films: Divergent, Insurgent, fidelityAnd Ascendant. the first movie, Divergent, was a box office success and the second film, insurgent, did even better, so they decided to take a page out of it The hunger Games And The twilight books and split the last book into two parts.
However, when the third movie, fidelity, with only about half of what Insurgent did, they cut their losses and never released Ascendant. These films, while popular, were not original enough to follow The hunger Games And The maze runner to succeed in the way they hoped. Despite this, fans of the franchise are getting feelings of nostalgia in response to The hunger Games’ bold dystopian renaissance attempt.
So will The ballad of songbirds and snakes engender enough nostalgia for the dystopias of 2010 that we’re starting to see the resurgence of midnight premieres and Mockingjay pins on teen backpacks? Probably not. But if Suzanne Collins decided to write another book about Katniss and Peeta’s life after the final games, that could be a different story.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will hit theaters on November 17, 2023.