Jennifer Lawrence won’t return to ‘Hunger Games’ as Katniss: Here’s why

Jennifer Lawrence is "totally" open to playing Katniss Everdeen again in The Hunger Games, as she told Variety in June, but the creators are not in her favour.

"If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100 percent," she said at the time.

As much as Lawrence wants a comeback, franchise producer Nina Jacobson and director Francis Lawrence thinks the story for her character Katniss has ended, and it’s in the hands of the Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins to write a new story on Katniss - only then Lawrence’s return is possible.

“If Suzanne has something to say, then she’ll write a book about it,” Jacobson revealed to Yahoo Entertainment while on the press tour of the upcoming release of the franchise prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.

“Honestly, as much as I love Katniss, I think her story is complete,” Jacobson added.

He continued “And I think that Suzanne feels that her story is complete. But if that changes, and Suzanne has something she wants to say, and it involves Katniss, then I would be thrilled. But really any chance to be back in this world, and lead with Francis and Suzanne, I would take regardless of who it was about.”

“What I’ve always loved is that Suzanne usually writes these things because she has a thematic idea she wants to explore,” Jennifer Lawrence’s director in every Hunger Games sequel Francis Lawrence said.

Adding, “So I think that if for whatever reason she had some thematic idea that made sense to tell another Katniss story, I’d be in, and then I’m sure Jen would be in. But it really all comes from theme and idea, and Suzanne.”

Since The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes takes place over 60 years before The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence was never going to be able to reprise her iconic role as Katniss.

Rachel Zegler's character Lucy Gray Baird is the main character in the prequel. For the tenth Hunger Games, Lucy, a tribute from District 12, receives mentoring from a young Snow (Tom Blyth).

Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hits theaters on November 17.