Arriving eight years after the most recent film in the franchise, “The Hunger Games” is back with the last movie in the movie series, “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” The first three movies are part of a trilogy following teenage protagonist Katniss Everdeen. The fourth and last movie is a prequel set 64 years before the original trilogy during Coriolanus Snows’ games. 

The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a North American country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 13 districts, each district having its specialty. Every year, children from the first 12 districts are selected at random to participate in a death match called The Hunger Games. 

Throughout the first three movies, Katniss struggles with President Coriolanus Snow in both of her games and all the hardships she faced with the Capitol. 

The Hunger Games movies follow the storyline of the novels. Suzanne Collins is the infamous author of The Hunger Games novels. Collins’s novels hold multiple awards, one of which being “Best Books of the Year” in 2008. 

The prequel novel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, follows the early days of the Hunger Games, featuring young Coriolanus Snow as the protagonist, and was released on May 19, 2023. The movie adaptation came out on November 17, 2023. 

Many Herrin High School students and teachers are fans of The Hunger Games trilogy and are incredibly excited about “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” 

Mr. Baskin in particular is a big fan of the series, especially the novels in the series and states he is “overly excited” to watch the newest movie. He also explained that his favorite character in the original trilogy is “definitely Katniss”. 

Nora Salazar(11) states that she loves the original trilogy and claims that her favorite character is Peeta Mellark. Cooper Christ(10) stated that he loved the novels. Both of these students also said that they were “really excited” to see the new movie. 

“The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” just came out last Friday and has the current title of #1 movie in the world! So far there are not many bad reviews on this movie. I would recommend, if you enjoy dystopian movies with a deeper meaning behind them, this movie might be for you! It’s in theaters now!