The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 Coming to IMAX 3D

It’s almost bemusing to think that The Hunger Games, which began as a medium-budgeted studio film starring a relative unknown before a shaky handheld camera, will be ending its saga this November in the biggest of ways. Indeed, Lionsgate and IMAX proudly announced Friday that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 will be arriving in theaters in IMAX and 3D.

Being digitally remastered for the IMAX experience, this final shot with Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen will also be the first Hunger Games film to be presented in the 3D format inside the U.S. and other western markets.

“I’m thrilled Mockingjay – Part 2 will be in IMAX theaters,” said director Francis Lawrence. “Fans will now have the chance to see the film in any format they want, which is exciting; we recently saw the 3-D version of Mockingjay – Part 1 before its release in China, and the new level of immersion was really fantastic.”

I can understand the interest from Lawrence, or really Lionsgate, in releasing the last sequel in 3D. This is not the first time that a Hunger Games film has gone to IMAX, as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was impressively shot with a combination of 35mm cameras and stunning 70mm IMAX ones for all the “arena” sequences. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 likely also would have played on IMAX screens last November if not for Interstellar hoarding them all.

Still, the relatively “stripped down” aesthetic of this blockbuster franchise that began with almost no CGI and focused on characters feels somewhat lost with the advent of 3D in the series. When the first several films were shot on film, and IMAX in the second one’s case, the glossiness that has come with the war from digital and now 3D feels at least somewhat counterintuitive.

[related article: Splitting The Hunger Games Mockingjay and Blockbuster Television]

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 picks up directly after the events of the previous film as Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) prepares to face President snow (Donald Sutherland) for a final showdown. Risking her life, she will attempt to sneak behind enemy lines and infiltrate the capital with a group of her closest friends, including Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin), and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), to assassinate the tyrant.

Directed by Franics Lawrence and from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 also stars Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Jeffrey Wright, Jena Malone, Natalie Dormer, and Stanley Tucci.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 opens on November 20, 2015.