The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1: What We Know So Far

The first trailer for ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1’ has arrived and it already looks like this two-hander will bring the saga to a close in epic style.

Watch it below.

If you’re a fan of the books (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), you already know how the story ends for Katniss, Peeta, Gale and the world of Panem, but that doesn’t stop Mockingjay from being one (or even two) of the most anticipated movies of the next few years.

Beware of possible plot spoilers for ‘Catching Fire’ and ‘Mockingjay’ ahead…

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Release Dates

Following the template set by ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Twilight’, the concluding chapter of ‘The Hunger Games’ will split over two films to give cinema-goers a double-hit of their favourite characters before waving them goodbye for good.

Read more:

- The Most Disturbing Movie Star Waxworks

- The First Photo Of New Wonder Woman Revealed

- Tom Hardy’s Mad Max Revealed In Fury Road Trailer

Or, to allow movie studios to clinically rinse the captive audience twice. Delete as appropriate for your levels of cynicism.

We know that both be released in the lucrative pre-Christmas slot with ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1’ coming November 21, 2014 before Part 2 takes its bow on November 20, 2015.

Mockingjay Cast

The lead trio will all definitely be back for both parts, come hell or tracker jacker, as Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth all signed a multi-picture deal to play Katniss, Peeta and Gale for the duration of the franchise.

[Watch: First Trailer For ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’]

Expect the supporting cast to return too, from Donald Sutherland and Stanley Tucci to Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks, none of the actors will want to miss out on the final chapters of this hugely popular series.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is also back in one of his last screen roles playing Plutarch Heavensbee.

Mockingjay Director

After the resounding success of ‘The Hunger Games’, it was presumed that director Gary Ross would stay on for the sequels, but he dropped out due to the tight production schedule imposed by the studio for the annual turnaround.

‘I Am Legend’ director Francis Lawrence signed a deal with Lionsgate to bring the next three films to screens, starting with ‘Catching Fire’ and finishing with the two ‘Mockingjay’ films which were shot back-to-back.

New Mockingjay Characters

New episodes means new characters, and ‘Mockingjay’ has a wealth of new faces to introduce, chief of which being President Coin, the underground leader of District 13, who will be played by Julianne Moore.

British actress Natalie Dormer, most recently seen in ‘Rush’ and ‘Game of Thrones’, will play Cressida, a gutsy TV director who follows Katniss into battle against the capitol, with Elden Henson and Wes Chatham playing her two cameramen, Pollux and Castor, and Evan Ross as her assistant Messalla.

Mahershala Ali, the TV star of ‘House of Cards’ and ‘Treme’, will play Boggs, a military bodyguard tasked with protecting Katniss.

[Read more: JJ Abrams Reveals New X-Wing for ‘Star Wars 7’]

Aussie newcomer Stef Dawson will play the pivotal role of Annie Cresta, the mentally scarred lover of Finnick Odair, the former District 4 champ played by Sam Claflin in ‘Catching Fire’.

Other key roles that have already been filled include twin soldiers Leeg 1 and Leeg 2 (Misty and Kim Ormiston), District 8’s rebellion leader Commander Paylor (Patina Miller), and former Hunger Games champ turned rebel Commander Lyme (Gwendoline Christie).

Eugenie Bondurant will play Tigris, the cat-like shop-keeper.

Where Will Mockingjay Split The Book For The Films?

The film-makers remain tight-lipped on this little nugget of info. There’s plenty of speculation online, but nothing is certain yet.

One theory suggests the split could come when Peeta arrives in District 13 and attempts to strangle Katniss, but this might be too cheap of a cliff-hanger and would leave a lot of ground to cover in ‘Part 2’.

Another theory suggest that the split will come when the troop of rebels arrive in the Capitol. This one seems more likely, but we’ll only know for certain closer to the release date.

Mockingjay Tone

Jennifer Lawrence revealed what book-readers already knew about ‘Mockingjay’: things are going to get emotional in the last films.

"I cried when I read the third script, I really did," Lawrence told THR during an interview for Catching Fire. "It was heartbreaking."

With the Katniss/Peeta/Gale love triangle getting increasingly more tangled, it’s no surprise that the District 12 gang are going to have their hearts put through the mangle in ‘Mockingjay’.

[Read more: Amazing 1990s Photo of The Rock Goes Viral]

Mockingjay Final Scene
Even though many people haven’t even seen the first scene in Catching Fire yet, director Francis Lawrence says he knows what the last scene in the series is going to be… as it was one of the first scenes on the new film that was shot.

Double beware for spoilers incoming…

He revealed that the last sequence Hunger Games fans will get to enjoy on the big-screen will be “A very small, minimal scene of Katniss hunting”, as he plans to bring the franchise full circle.

'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' is in cinemas November, 2014.

Image credit: Lionsgate/Rex/Associated Press