Franchise author Suzanne Collins plans to release another prequel for The Hunger Games, this time, set 40 years after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Learn more about its slated release date and story below!
Suzanne Collins' New Hunger Games Novel Slated For 2025 Release
The recent prequel Hunger Games story earned $337 million at the box office, despite the film only costing $100 million total.
Still, it could never compare to the original film franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen (Catching Fire had the highest-grossing with $865 million).
However, considering the Panem is a much larger place to explore, it comes as no surprise that Suzanne Collins is penning another prequel Hunger Games book.
The upcoming title is The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which is currently slated to be released on March 18, 2025.
The novel will be taking place 24 years before the original trilogy and 40 years after Lucy Gray Baird and President Snow's The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Ahead of the novel's release, Collins also confirmed that a movie adaptation will follow soon after, which is scheduled to hit theaters on November 20, 2026.
READ MORE: Night Swim: Who is Amélie Hoeferle? You May Know Her from The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Collins explained how she was inspired by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume in creating her fifth novel.
"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,'", whereby Hume's story took a 'deeper dive' into the use of propaganda and power of those 'who control the narrative.'
Political propaganda is exactly one of the unique qualities that reeled readers into The Hunger Games franchise, so it only makes sense that the fifth novel will likely expound on it with a different approach.
Collins added, "The question, 'Real or not real?' seems more pressing to me every day."
Since Sunrise on the Reaping takes place 24 years before Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark's double win, the fifth novel will tell the story of the victor Haymitch Abernathy, the same Haymitch who eventually became a mentor to the tributes from his district.
Though Woody Harrelson initially portrayed Haymitch in the originals, there's a chance we're getting a new ensemble for Sunrise on the Reaping, similar to how Tom Blyth took the role in the prequel, with Donald Sutherland as the 'present' Snow in the film franchise.
For now, we will have to wait for more updates on this story before Suzanne Collins can confirm further details.
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