The Smashing Pumpkins share Butch Vig-produced “Black Stars” for Hunger Games film

The Smashing Pumpkins released “Black Stars” on 16 October, along with a music video, as their contribution to the soundtrack of “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping”. The soundtrack album is out on 13 November via MCA, ahead of the film’s theatrical release on 20 November 2026.

The song reunites the band with producer Butch Vig, who worked on their 1991 debut “Gish” and 1993’s “Siamese Dream”, making it their first collaboration since then. Billy Corgan had said in a Substack livestream that the band had recorded one song with Vig, then “98% done”. According to uDiscover Music, the track grew out of a solo album Corgan was working on and was recorded at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles, with additional sessions in Chicago. Consequence calls it a moody, mid-tempo cut with a siren-like guitar line and vocal harmonies.

The video features founding members Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, alongside touring bassist Jack Bates and touring guitarist Kiki Wong, Visions notes. The soundtrack, executive produced by Dave Cobb, gathers 29 artists, including Noah Kahan, with “Black Stars” as track 15. The band has already added the song to the set of its “Rats in a Cage Tour”, a North American arena run built around a full playthrough of “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”.

The Smashing Pumpkins formed in Chicago in 1988 and are one of the defining American alternative rock bands. Their newest studio album, according to MusicBrainz, is “Aghori Mhori Mei” (2024). In October mbuzz reported that the band tops Consequence’s list of the 100 best bands of all time.