There’s an entire graveyard in Hollywood littered with the bones of countless YA adaptations that failed to gain enough success or momentum to start a franchise, with the upcoming Chaos Walking destined for a similar fate after arriving several years too late to the party. Almost any book series that sold a decent amount of copies was given the big screen treatment as the studios tried desperately to replicate the Harry Potter formula, but only Twilight and The Hunger Games even came close to matching the boy wizard.
Jennifer Lawrence cemented her transition from fast rising talent to bona fide movie star after headlining the four blockbusters as Katniss Everdeen, steering them to almost $3 billion at the box office and generally enthusiastic reviews, although the decision to split Mockingjay into two parts yielded a pair of average films instead of one great one.
Prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was announced to be in active development in April last year, with Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt handling the script. And though there’s been little news on the project since, insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that the property is being lined up for a small screen outing as well.
Unfortunately, there are no further details available, so you’re best taking it as a rumor for the time being, especially when the movie franchise still technically isn’t over. After all, The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes shares the same narrative space as the previous four installments, albeit in a different time period.
That being said, it feels inevitable that the property will be given the full-blown reboot treatment at some point, and with rights holders Lionsgate also owners of Starz, there’s even a ready made home for an episodic version of The Hunger Games should the company decide to move forward on giving Katniss’ adventures a brand new spin in the future. That is, assuming this show would even follow her story again. It could, after all, focus on another time period.
