It would probably be fair to say that the Hunger Games movie franchise is producer Nina Jacobson's baby. After she was fired from her role running Buena Vista Pictures for Disney in 2006, Jacobson struck out on her own with her production company, Color Force, and the original Hunger Games film was among the first that the company produced. That decision worked out pretty well, obviously.

Ahead of the release of the excellent franchise prequel, The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I spoke with Jacobson about coming back to a franchise that she thought was over and done with, and how this prequel manages to dramatically change up the franchise formula in the best ways.

"We really thought we had told our stories and that we were done making Hunger Games movies. We did not have a big plan for any prequels or sequels," Jacobson said. "We thought, you know, if [Hunger Games author] Suzanne [Collins] has something, a story to tell in this world, that would be great. But if she doesn't, then we'll just have what we had and feel lucky to have had it."