Hunger Games Director Admits Massive Mistake With Film Franchise
One of the worst trends in modern young adult films is the apparent studio insistence on splitting the final film of a franchise into two parts. This trend rose to prominence when Warner Brothers made the decision to split the final installment in the Harry Potter film series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into two separate films, which came out in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, young film fans aren’t the only moviegoers who take issue with the trend, as Hunger Games filmmaker Francis Lawrence acknowledges that it was a huge mistake to split the final film in the franchise.
Francis Lawrence, the director of The Hunger Games franchise, admits splitting Mockingjay into two films was a mistake.
When Lawrence and the executives at Lionsgate initially made the decision to split the final installment of the Hunger Games film series into two movies, it seemed like a no-brainer. Many other young adult novels that have been adapted into films have followed this trend, including franchises such as Harry Potter, The Maze Runner, Twilight, and even Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films.
Splitting the Jennifer Lawrence-led film into separate parts allowed the filmmaker to explore more of the final book in the Hunger Games novel series without leaving a significant chunk of the plot and character developments on the cutting room floor.
Perhaps if Hunger Games: Mockingjay had been given a film adaptation in 2023 instead of 2014 and 2015, respectively, the novel would have been condensed into a single contained three-hour-long film.
The move is also a financial decision, as the combined income of two films to cap off the series will almost surely result in a greater yield for the studio and producers than a single feature-length movie. Unfortunately, in the case of the Hunger Games: Mockingjay films, this only served to frustrate audiences while drawing out the inevitable conclusions of the story for an extra unnecessary year. Francis Lawrence seemed to acknowledge this mistake in a recent interview with the press, expressing regret at the decision to split the film with the benefit of hindsight.
Splitting the Jennifer Lawrence-led film into separate parts allowed the filmmaker to explore more of the final book in the Hunger Games novel series without leaving a significant chunk of the plot and character developments on the cutting room floor.
While the filmmaker maintains that he wouldn’t have split the final chapter of the Hunger Games franchise in half if he could go back and do it all again, Lawrence maintains that the two halves of the Mockingjay saga each culminate in their own separate cinematic resolutions, which would be exceptionally difficult to cram into a single movie.
With that being said, many modern films have seen an increase in average run-time in recent years, with films such as The Irishman, Oppenheimer, Babylon, Avatar: The Way of Water, and even Avengers: Endgame clocking in at well over three hours. Perhaps if Hunger Games: Mockingjay had been given a film adaptation in 2023 instead of 2014 and 2015, respectively, the novel would have been condensed into a single contained three-hour-long film.
Luckily, Francis Lawrence has been given a chance at redemption with the upcoming release of the prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is set to arrive in theaters next month. When prompted about the possibility of splitting this adaptation into multiple films, Lawrence vehemently denied the possibility, stating in no uncertain terms that he’d rather make an extra-long film instead.
For those looking forward to the first feature film in the Hunger Games franchise in nearly a decade, this should be a terrific sign of positive changes to come.
