It’s time to learn more about the history of Panem, because Suzanne Collins has another Hunger Games prequel novel on the way — and yes, it will soon be coming to the big screen as well.
Scholastic announced Thursday that Sunrise on the Reaping, Collins’ fifth book in the Hunger Games series, will be published next year. The new novel will depict the 50th Hunger Games, a.k.a. the Second Quarter Quell, meaning it takes place 24 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered for the 74th Hunger Games in the first novel. In fact, as the title indicates, the new book will open at daybreak on the day of reaping (selection of tributes) for the Second Quarter Quell, which involves twice as many tributes as a typical Hunger Games competition.
Scholastic’s announcement doesn’t highlight this, but astute fans of the series will remember the Second Quarter Quell was the tournament in which Katniss’ mentor Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the film adaptations) participated.
Shortly after Scholastic’s announcement, Lionsgate joined in to say that they are already planning to adapt Sunrise on the Reaping into a feature film.
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Murray Close/Lionsgate
“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 statement. “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.”
The original Hunger Games trilogy (including sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay) told Katniss’ story from volunteer tribute in the annual survive-or-die tournament to revolutionary leader in the overthrow of the corrupt Capitol. In 2020, Collins returned to her world of Panem with the prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which explained the origin of Coriolanus Snow.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was then turned into a successful movie last year, starring Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as the young Snow. Sounds like Sunrise on the Reaping will get the same treatment.
