The runtime for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has seemingly been revealed, breaking a record for the longest film in the franchise. The upcoming prequel will feature an origin story for Coriolanus Snow, a man who goes on to become the primary antagonist of the franchise. His story will depict his days during the 10th Hunger Games, where he was a mentor for District 12’s female tribute Lucy Gray Baird.
Now, GamesRadar has reported the upcoming Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will feature the longest runtime of any Hunger Games movie. The film will be 156 minutes and 59 seconds long, just a second shy of 2 hours and 37 minutes. This makes it 10 minutes longer than the previous series record-holder The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Why The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes Is So Long
Book readers won’t be surprised to learn the upcoming prequel to The Hunger Games will make for the longest film in the franchise so far. Author Suzanne Collins’ original book of the same name weighs in at 517 pages, the longest of the series. Featuring a detailed backstory for Snow and how he became loyal enough to rise to power in Panem, the book justified its length through the story it was telling.
Now, the cast of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will be bringing the book to life in the lengthiest film of the franchise. Joining Tom Blyth as Coriolanus and Rachel Zelger as Lucy, the cast also includes Viola Davis (Fences), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore), and Burn Gorman (Turn: Washington’s Spies) among others. With major talent behind the prequel, it will no doubt be able to justify its runtime thanks in part to its performances.
The new movie will also feature plenty of callbacks to the original film series, such as Lucy singing “The Hanging Tree” from Mockingjay. This will allow the film the firmly plant itself in The Hunger Games universe while establishing its own story – whose length will be justified by its content. Now that it’s reportedly the longest film in the series, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will have plenty of new content to introduce in the series.
