“Hunger Games” director regrets splitting “Mockingjay” into two movies: 'We got so much s---'

When The Hunger Games arrived on the big screen in 2012, it was greeted by a ravenous fan base ready to be immersed in the world of Panem. But by the time the four-film series was wrapping up, there was frustration among fans that the final book of Suzanne Collins' dystopian trilogy had been split into two movies.

"I totally regret it," filmmaker Francis Lawrence said of the divide-and-conquer strategy in a new PEOPLE interview. "I totally do. I'm not sure everybody does, but I definitely do."

Lawrence, who directed three of the four Hunger Games movies and is also behind this fall's prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, admitted that he understands the fan frustration now.

Everett Collection Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2'

At the time of 2014's Mockingjay — Part 1 and 2015's Mockingjay — Part 2, Lawrence was regularly defending the decision in interviews. "I still completely stand by the idea," he told the BBC. He elaborated to iO9: "You know, we got some flack for splitting the movies; I think they're two distinct stories, but really, that kind of evolution [of the characters] would be a much, much, much more difficult thing to do in the course of two hours versus the course of two films."

While the Mockingjay films do have their own story arcs — he's not wrong there — Lawrence has come around to how fans felt about the split. "What I realized in retrospect — and after hearing all the reactions and feeling the kind of wrath of fans, critics, and people at the split — is that I realized it was frustrating," he told PEOPLE. "And I can understand that."

He continued: "In an episode of television, if you have a cliffhanger, you have to wait a week, or you could just binge it, and then you can see the next episodes. But making people wait a year, I think, came across as disingenuous, even though it wasn't."

Still, Lawrence hedged by saying he was able to get more of the book on screen by splitting the movies. Four hours of screen time allows for a lot more of the book to be filmed than two hours.

In any case, when Collins' 2020 novel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hits theaters Nov. 17, it will not be split across multiple films. It will, however, have the longest runtime of any Hunger Games film to date, at two hours and 36 minutes.

"I would never let them split the book in two," Lawrence said of the new movie. "It's a long book, but we got so much s--- for splitting Mockingjay into two — from fans, from critics, from everybody — that I was like, 'No way. I'll just make a longer movie.'"

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