Way back when in the 2010s (if you can even remember such a time), the world was universally charmed by Jennifer Lawrence’s seeming inability to come off as anything other than honest in an interview, meaning we should accept her response to a recent question at face value. When asked by Variety if she’d have any interest in grabbing her bow and arrow once more to play the part of The Hunger Games hero Katniss Everdeen, there wasn’t much prevarication.
The 32-year-old's response was not a “Gee, I’m not so sure it would make sense” or even an “I’d have to look at the script,” but rather an “Oh, my God—totally!”
“If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100 percent,” she said, then added, “My producing partner just clutched her heart.” (Whether that’s a happy clutch or an “oh, God, what is she saying???” clutch is open to debate!)
Lawrence is making the rounds in promotion of her forthcoming comedy No Hard Feelings, a comedy in which a young woman accepts a proposition put forth by Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti to “date” their socially awkward son (Andrew Barth Feldman). Perhaps you saw the eyebrow-raising red band trailer, or one of the many enthusiastic reactions. The film was directed and co-written by Gene Stupnitsky, whose past credits include writing and directing episodes of The Office, co-writing and/or directing the films Bad Teacher and Good Boys, co-creating the recent success Jury Duty, and co-writing the somewhat overlooked Harold Ramis picture Year One.
The Oscar-winning actress (with three additional nominations) appeared in four films based on Suzanne Collins’s blockbuster YA trilogy The Hunger Games from 2012 through 2015. The combined gross totaled nearly $3 billion, according to box office data site The Numbers.
In November last year, director Francis Lawrence, who helmed all but the first Hunger Games, finished production on a prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, based on Collins’s 2020 novel. The new film was shot in Germany and Poland, and stars Tom Blyth as a young version of future baddie Cornelius Snow (played later in life by Donald Sutherland) and Rachel Zegler as a tribute from District 12, much like Katniss will one day be. Jason Schwartzman, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, and Burn Gorman are also in the mix.
But you know who isn’t? Jennifer Lawrence. Maybe there’s time to shoot some quick “vision of the future” dream sequence or something?
As of right now, Songbirds and Snakes is not being molded in such a way as to kick off a new series. “Unless Suzanne writes another one, it's a stand-alone,” Lawrence said in a recent interview with Collider. “We did it as one. We didn't split it. It's one long movie.”
But if the picture, which comes out in mid-November, is a hit, it may get the typewriter keys clacking. With J-Law not dismissing any future involvement, the odds are ever in their favor.
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