Smashing Pumpkins Drop 'Black Stars' for Hunger Games: Sunrise — SkimNews
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- The Smashing Pumpkins released "Black Stars" as the latest track for the companion album to Lionsgate's The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, with the album arriving November 13, one week before the film's November 20 release.
- Billy Corgan was working on a solo album when the band was invited to contribute; he tapped producer Butch Vig to help select a song fitting the world of Panem during the 50th Hunger Games and second Quarter Quell, which centers on Haymitch Abernathy (played by Joseph Zada).
- The "Black Stars" music video features purple smoke that corresponds to the purple and yellow smoke filling the arena in the film's trailers.
- Noah Kahan's "Draw You Out" was the first single announced from the album; speculation names Lizzy McAlpine, Kacey Musgraves, and Hozier among other potentially involved artists.
- The Hunger Games franchise has a pattern of major-artist soundtracks: Taylor Swift wrote "Safe and Sound" for the 2012 first film, Lorde wrote "Yellow Flicker Beat" for Mockingjay Part 1, Olivia Rodrigo wrote "Can't Catch Me Now" for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Coldplay wrote "Atlas" for Catching Fire.
Why it matters: The Pumpkins join a lineup of A-list artists (Swift, Lorde, Rodrigo, Coldplay) that Lionsgate has used to anchor each Hunger Games installment's companion album, making the soundtrack a built-in promotional engine timed one week before the film's November 20 theatrical bow.
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