The Hunger Games are back, and it’s a return to form for the franchise. As The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hits the masses this week, may the odds be ever in your favor of lasting the 157-minute length without a bathroom break. At least a talented cast, catchy songs, and occasional humor will help keep you glued to your seat. It’s directed by Francis Lawrence, who also helmed Catching Fire and the two Mockingjay installments. The acclaimed new Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes feature is expected to top the box office this weekend, and we recently caught up with the veteran filmmaker to learn more about the latest entry in The Hunger Games universe.

Exploring a Villain’s Origin Story

Just like Harry Potter and other hit franchises, it all started with the books. Suzanne Collins has continued to write novels for The Hunger Games saga, with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hitting the shelves in 2020. “Coming back was really exciting,” Lawrence told us. “I think it was a surprise for both Nina [Jacobson, producer] and I that Suzanne wrote another book. She didn’t tell us that she was planning on it. She only told us when she was almost done, and we read it and loved it. And we were just ready to jump in.”

Lawrence continued to detail the biggest hurdles in bringing this fresh new content to life on the big screen:

“I think the new challenge was: It was very much a Hunger Games movie but a very, very different kind of narrative. We’re doing a villain’s origin story. And I think that the fun challenge was really making sure that we can get the audience behind and rooting for and empathizing with the guy that they know is the villain and the antagonist from the other movies. But it was a fun challenge and super exciting.”

Lionsgate

Lawrence also reunited with an Oscar-winning screenwriter for this latest Hunger Games feature: Michael Arndt, who also lent his masterful hand to commercial hits like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Toy Story 3. “We worked with Michael Arndt for a long, long while,” said Lawrence. “He and I developed something a long time ago. And I just love the way he works and the way he thinks, and he and Suzanne get along really well. They’re both real structuralists in terms of narrative.”

Related: How Did The Hunger Games Start?

Given the novel’s 2020 release date, the filmmakers started work on the script at the height of the pandemic. Lawrence shares, “We worked for a long time, all through the pandemic, honestly. There were days and days and days where we just spent hours on the phone and Zooms and things. And then we also brought in Michael Lesslie, who did the sort of final draft and then was with us on set. And he also just did a phenomenal job.”

Enlisting Fresh, Young Actors Along with Veterans

Fans of the Hunger Games will recognize certain characters in this latest feature — but not the actors playing them. Since The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel, we see a brand-new cast, a new array of both youthful energy and more veteran, seasoned performers.

We wanted to bring in sort of new kinds of young, fresh actors, which is kind of what happened on the original ones, and then fill the movie in with sort of legacy actors. And that’s what we did here.

When it comes to veteran actors, it doesn’t get much better than the legendary Viola Davis. Lawrence says, “When we got Viola — who I have a relationship with, we’ve been developing something else together — we had a great Zoom and filled her in on the thematics of the story and how her character relates to those themes and references for the character. And I think she was just really excited to be in something commercial, very thematic, and to play a kind of role that she’s never really done before. I think she really had fun with it.”

Related: Explained: The History of Panem from The Hunger Games

In addition to EGOT-winner Viola Davis, Lawrence’s new film is graced with two other acclaimed actors: Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore). Both are knockouts in their supporting roles and leave us wanting more, especially given Dinklage’s limited screen time. Speaking on the contributions of these brilliant performers, Lawrence adds,

“[Peter] just really took to the role and took to the material and the thematics and that character, and he was really game, and same with Jason Schwartzman. Actually, when he joined, we had a Zoom and I said, ‘Look, I think your character has been really underwritten. Will you join me and the writer and help develop more ideas and jokes and things for the character?’ And so we spent a lot of time working together, and a lot of what you see in the movie is actually created by him.”

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is chock-full of thrilling sequences, both inside the tournament and out. Watch out for the “snakes” that are perhaps more intelligent than you might think, for example. We had to ask if Lawrence had a particular scene he was most proud of. “I don’t want to spoil too much for people, but there’s the bombing sequence, which was probably one of the more complicated things to shoot,” he told us. “The snakes were less complicated to shoot, more complicated in terms of the sort of visual effects. I think that took the longest of anything in the movie to get the sort of visual effects right and to get that all sort of choreographed and working.”

From Lionsgate, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hits theaters Friday, Nov. 17.