Suzanne Collins is writing a new Hunger Games book — and congrats everyone, it’s the Haymitch prequel story many (myself included) have been clamoring for. And in a surprise to no one, it’s becoming a movie, too.
Everyone say thank you to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes star Rachel Zegler for manifesting this back in 2021.
Titled Sunrise on the Reaping, Collins’ new book takes place 24 years before the first Hunger Games book — on the dawn of the Second Quarter Quell. If you’re not super plugged into the Hunger Games timeline, that’s the game that Katniss and Peeta’s grumpy mentor Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the movies) won, by outsmarting the Gamemakers.
A new Hunger Games book right after the box office success of Hunger Games prequel movie might seem like a cash grab, but as longtime Hunger Games movie producer Nina Jacobson told Polygon last year, Collins is selective about when she returns to this world.
“Suzanne, the originator and North Star of everything that we try to do with these books, she doesn’t write just to make money,” Jacobson said. “She writes when she has something to say.”
And boy, does Collins have something to say this time!
“With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,’” Collins said in a press release from Scholastic. “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
Jacobson promised that the only way she would make another Hunger Games movie is if Collins delivered new source material — and she is standing by her word. On the heels of the novel announcement, Lionsgate announced that it was already in the works on a movie version of Sunrise on the Reaping. Francis Lawrence, who directed several Hunger Games films including The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is in talks to direct. Haymitch’s backstory was cut from the main Hunger Games films in order to streamline them, so this should be a perfect chance to finally showcase the whole story.
Sunrise on the Reaping arrives to bookstores on March 18, 2025. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will hit theaters on Nov. 20, 2026.
Update: After publication of this article, Lionsgate announced plans for a feature adaptation. We’ve updated the story to reflect both announcements.
