“The Hunger Games” Prequel About President Snow Will Soon Be a Movie

Get ready to go back to Panem. The prequel to Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is officially becoming a movie — and the book isn't even out yet.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate shared on Tuesday, April 21 that a movie version of the prequel, which centers on the twisted President Snow, is "in the works." It will be helmed by producer Nina Jacobson, director Francis Lawrence, and screenwriter Michael Arndt, who very successfully brought the previous Hunger Games movies to life onscreen.

"Suzanne’s new book has been worth the wait. It offers everything fans could hope for and expect from The Hunger Games while also breaking new ground and introducing an entirely new canvas of characters," Lionsgate said in a statement, per THR. No casting has been announced, though we're pretty sure Donald Sutherland won't be stepping back into Snow's shoes this time around.

The book takes place 64 years before young Katniss Everdeen takes down the Capitol and follows teenage Coriolanus Snow, who is apparently a "hero" in his youth. The story will detail what exactly happens to the white-haired Coriolanus that turns him into the villainous President Snow.

However, the prequel isn't without its fair share of controversy. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to hit shelves on May 19, but when its first excerpt was released via Entertainment Weekly, fans were less than thrilled to find out that the highly-anticipated prequel was about Snow and not another character in the diverse, complex world of Panem — namely, the iconic heroine Mags. "I couldn’t be more disappointed by the next HUNGER GAMES being about f*cking President Snow and trying to paint him as a 'misunderstood hero' are you kidding me. The very last thing I’m interested in is humanizing a fascist dictator because he has a tragic past," author Aiden Thomas wrote at the time.

No further information has been shared regarding the film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, though the book's release is just a few weeks away. We'll have to wait and see which of our favorite characters from the Hunger Games franchise will possibly make an appearance.

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue