The games aren’t over yet.
Author Suzanne Collins is writing a fifth book in her best-selling “Hunger Games” series, which is already set to be turned into a feature film.
The latest novel is another prequel titled “Sunrise on the Reaping,” Scholastic revealed on Thursday. The story is set 24 years before the events of the original book and begins on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, the publisher said. The original novel and film depicted the 74th Hunger Games.
In the series, the reaping is the event in which participants for the Hunger Games, or “tributes,” are selected.
Just hours after the book was announced, Lionsgate confirmed it’s adapting “Sunrise on the Reaping” into a feature film, which will hit theaters in 2026. Francis Lawrence is in talks to direct after helming every movie in the series other than the 2012 original.
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Collins said in a statement her book 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.'”
She added that the novel will offer a “deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative,” adding, “The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
This will be the first new “Hunger Games” novel since 2020’s “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” a prequel set 64 years before the first book. It followed a young Coriolanus Snow, who later becomes the evil President Snow in the original series, and the plot centered around the 10th Hunger Games.
“The Hunger Games” is set in a dystopian future where representatives from each district in the nation of Panem are forced to compete in a fight to the death every year. The original novels were published from 2008 to 2010, and from 2012 to 2015, Jennifer Lawrence starred in the blockbuster movie adaptations.
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In November, Lionsgate resurrected the movie series with an adaptation of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” starring Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth. The film franchise has grossed over $3 billion.
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Although some fans were anticipating a direct sequel to “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” “Sunrise on the Reaping” will instead be set 40 years later.
The original novels established that the winner of the 50th Hunger Games, the subject of the new book, was Haymitch Abernathy, played in the films by Woody Harrelson. This Hunger Games consisted of twice the number of tributes as usual.
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“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” director Francis Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly last year he would be interested in directing a movie about how Haymitch won his Hunger Games. “If Suzanne has another thematic idea that she feels fits into the world of Panem — whether that’s with new people (or) familiar characters (like) Finnick, Haymitch, whoever — I’d be really interested in looking at it and being a part of it,” Lawrence said.
On Thursday, Zegler reshared a 2021 post on X where she suggested Collins should write a trilogy about the origin of Haymitch Abernathy. “You’re welcome guys,” Zegler wrote.
When will the next ‘Hunger Games’ be released?
The “Sunrise on the Reaping” book will be published on March 18, 2025, while the film adaptation will hit theaters on Nov. 20, 2026.
