It’s been eight years since the last film in the Hunger Games franchise hit theaters around the world. Now, with the release of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes—the adaptation of the Hunger Games prequel—fans are lined up and excited to re-enter the world of Panem.

The story follows Coriolanus Snow (played by Tom Blyth), who someday would be the ruthless dictator of Panem. However, 64 years before the events of the first Hunger Games book, he is simply a mentor, helping a young girl from District 12 through her Hunger Games. Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) is a young musician, who wins her support and her sponsors by performing both in and out of the games.

This chilling tale displays the journey of how Coriolanus truly began to turn evil. 

The film’s director Francis Lawrence has been getting some judgment for the lengthy run time of the film, which is 2 hours and 37 minutes. However, in an interview with GamesRadar+, he revealed that he doesn’t care about the length of the movie as long as it has a clear beginning, middle and end.

“I did not want to split them into two,” Lawrence said in his interview with GamesRadar+. “We got too much heat splitting Mockingjay into two previously. So I was like, ‘I don’t care if this movie is long, we’re going to do one satisfying movie.’”

The film will hit theaters this Friday, Nov. 17. Although the rotten tomatoes review is hovering around 60%, fans remain more excited than ever to see their favorite dystopian world reappear on the big screen.