This past November a new addition to the Hunger Games movie franchise was released in theaters. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes tells the origin story of Coriolanus Snow and the backstory of how the original trilogy came to be. 

Fans of the original books flocked to bookstores when the book version was released in May of 2020, and theaters filled up when the movie was released. 

Starring in the film are Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler. Zegler has a history of musical theater, starring in films such as West Side Story, where she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress. She fittingly plays the role of Lucy Gray Baird --  a singer -- and fans on sites such as rottentomatoes.com enjoyed her performance, “Rachel Zegler can SING !!!! Her vocals stole the show for me, I loved all of her performances.” are some of the many reviews.

Through and through fans loved this film, and it held a candle to the beloved originals, “The leads in Ballad blow the original movie's leads out of the water. They're that good.” Some viewers expressed concern about the mature themes and some violent imagery shown in the movie, stating that the rating should have been R instead of PG-13.  Despite this, fans have gone to social media to discuss theories about the movie, watch edits of their favorite characters, and make connections to the original series. Just as it was in the early 2010s, the Hunger Games is coming back for its moment in pop culture.