‘The Hunger Games’ starts fresh, without Katniss, in ‘The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’

By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer

Eight years after the Katniss Everdeen saga closed, a new Hunger Games prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” arrives in theaters nationwide Friday at another transitional moment in Hollywood. Producer Nina Jacobson and director Francis Lawrence returned for the story, set 64 years before the first film, centered on a young Coriolanus Snow. They enlisted a new batch of fresh faces, including Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, to star alongside seasoned veterans like Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage, in a film they hope attracts new and old fans alike to the movie theater.