SAN DIEGO • "Make no mistake, the game is coming to its end," President Snow tells Katniss Everdeen in the first official Mockingjay - Part 2 trailer, released on Thursday, as Jennifer Lawrence led The Hunger Games stars in their final Comic-Con bow.
Mockingjay - Part 2, due in theatres on Nov 20, will conclude the popular dystopian young adult Hunger Games film franchise that follows heroine Katniss (Lawrence) as she leads a revolution against oppressive leader President Snow.
The trailer shows sweeping scenes of the Capitol of Panem burning as Katniss brings war to the city, and glimpses of all her relationships, from her sister Prim, who started her on the journey, to Plutarch, played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
"What I like about these movies is that they take the entire world and they condense it into this one continent, and they take all of these issues and one girl, who took it in her hands," said Lawrence, 24.
Movie studio Lionsgate has showcased The Hunger Games franchise prominently at San Diego's ComicCon over the last four years, drumming up buzz among the convention's 100,000-plus fans of films and pop culture.
It has also led the way in making trailer releases events in themselves, teasing glimpses and asking fans to take part in activities for early access to the panels.
This year, it served up something different, by parading 34 costumed kettle drummers into the hall that forms the convention's epicentre. And to make its presentation even more lively, it took the rare step of securing a well-known professional - Conan O'Brien - as the emcee.
It then presented Lawrence, 24, and her Hunger Games co-stars including Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth and Willow Shields, and unveiled to fans an exclusive peek at the Mockingjay trailer, titled We March Together (hence the drummers).
Fans also got to see the movie poster, showing Lawrence in a red leather costume seated on a white throne.
She and her co-stars said filming the last instalment of the four-part franchise was emotional. "The changes that happened in my life from doing these movies are so permanent that I don't think I'll ever really say goodbye, it'll always be a part of me," she said.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
