US singer Olivia Rodrigo has said she is "beyond excited" to have written a new song for the much-anticipated Hunger Games prequel.
The track titled Can't Catch Me Now from the 20-year-old Drivers License pop star will feature on the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes which is set for release on Friday 17 November.
Set many years before the events of the existing films, the prequel stars West Side Story's Rachel Zegler and Billy The Kid actor Tom Blyth, as Lucy Gray Baird and the young Coriolanus Snow respectively, alongside Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage and Oscar winner Viola Davis.
The fifth film in the franchise, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes "follows a young Coriolanus who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol".
"With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12," the synopsis continues.
But after Lucy Gray's charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates.
"With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favour.
"Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake."
Speaking about the song, which will be released on Friday 3 November, Rodrigo said: "Soooo beyond excited that I got the opportunity to write a song for The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes."
On Instagram, Zegler said that "making this movie was hands-down one of the best experiences of my life thus far".
She also thanked entertainment company Lionsgate and US actors union Sag-Aftra for "working so hard throughout this strike to come to an agreement allowing us to participate in press and promotion for our film".
Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan will also be in this film playing Ggrandma'am, as someone who "has no time at all for the have-nots".
Grandma'am is the lynchpin of the franchise's Snow family, the strict force in the lives of grandchildren Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) and Tigris (Hunter Schafer).
In an on-set video recorded before the current actors' strike in the US (watch below), Flanagan said of her character in the sci-fi action movie: "You don't quite know whether you should take her seriously - but when she stands up and sings the anthem with her hand on her heart, you know where her loyalties lie."
Rodrigo, recently announced a world tour in support of her new album GUTS and it includes a date at the 3Arena in Dublin on 30 April 2024.
This will be the three-time Grammy award-winning artist's first arena tour and it follows her whirlwind rise as one of the biggest new names in pop with the massive success of her debut single Drivers License, which spent nine weeks at No. 1 Ireland, and her first album Sour, which is still No. 11 in Ireland two years after it was released.
The 57-date tour kicks off on 23 February next year in Palm Springs in the singer's home state of California ad will also hit Miami, Toronto, New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris before wrapping up on 14 August at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes will be in Irish cinemas, 17 Friday November.
