Director of “The Hunger Games” is Returning For Prequel Movie

Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games"

The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will be helmed by the series filmmaker Francis Lawrence.

The series is based on Suzanne Collins bestselling Hunger Games novels and the new prequel novel, The Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes, which will be available on May 19.

Lionsgate produced The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching FireThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, which grossed over $2.97 billion worldwide.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is creatively thrilling and takes this world to complex new dimensions that open up amazing cinematic possibilities,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Joe Drake said.

The film takes place 64 years before The Hunger Games and follows 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow who eventually became the authoritarian ruler of Panem and the villain in The Hunger Games. Snow has been chosen to mentor a girl from District 12, the future home of Katniss Everdeen, for the 10th annual Hunger Games.

No cast or release date has been announced.