The popular Hunger Games franchise is set to introduce a new movie from its dystopian world, albeit in the form of a prequel.

Lionsgate, the Hollywood production company behind the previous Hunger Games movies, confirmed its executives were eyeing a late 2023 or early 2024 release date for the prequel. Production is slated to start in 2022. 

The prequel is an adaptation of author Suzanne Collins’ book “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” set 64 years before the main events of the Hunger Games. The story, set in the dystopian nation of Panem, follows Coriolanus Snow during his youth as he ascends to become the tyrannical president and the series’ main antagonist. 

The character, previously played by veteran actor Donald Sutherland, orchestrated the Hunger Games in which two teenage tributes from each of Panem’s 12 districts were chosen to compete in a fight-to-death televised tournament.

Francis Lawrence, the director behind the last three out of four movies (Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 & 2), is set to return to the franchise in the same role. 

Collins herself will serve as an executive producer and co-writer on the movie’s script.

It is noteworthy that the main trilogy of the books - respectively titled The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay - have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 54 languages.

The four movies adapting the trilogy, released between 2012 and 2015, have grossed approximately $3 billion at the global box office and have become an international sensation.