A 'Hunger Games' prequel movie is in development

Tributes, it's finally time to re-enter the Games.

On Tuesday, Lionsgate announced the multi-billion dollar Hunger Games franchise would return to theaters with an adaptation of Suzanne Collins' upcoming novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Due on shelves May 19, the prequel centers on the 10th annual Hunger Games and a teenage Coriolanus Snow, years before he would become the tyrannical leader of Panem.

“Suzanne’s new book has been worth the wait," Lionsgate chairman Joe Drake said in a press release. "It offers everything fans could hope for and expect from The Hunger Games while also breaking new ground and introducing an entirely new canvas of characters."

The film adaptation will reunite Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson. Collins will serve as an executive producer and write the treatment for the film before it is adapted by Michael Arndt, another Hunger Games alum.

“Lionsgate has always been the cinematic home of The Hunger Games, and I’m delighted to be returning to them with this new book,” Collins said. “From the beginning, they have treated the source material with great respect, honoring the thematic and narrative elements of the story, and assembling an incredible team both in front of and behind the camera."

You can read an excerpt from Chapter 1 here. May the odds be ever in your favor.