Let the games begin: Suzanne Collins announced Thursday that a new “Hunger Games” book is on the way, with a new movie to follow.
The new book, “Sunrise on the Reaping,” will be the fifth installment in the popular dystopian series. Scholastic will publish the novel on March 18, 2025.
Collins said he meditated on the writings of David Hume, an 18th-century Scottish philosopher known for his skepticism, while writing the book.
“With 'Sunrise on the Reaping,' I was inspired by David Hume's idea of implicit submission and, in his words, 'the ease with which the many are governed by the few,'” he said in a statement. “The story also lent itself to delving into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question 'Real or not real?' Every day it seems more pressing to me.”
Propaganda themes are not uncommon in the “Hunger Games” franchise, which originally followed teenager Katniss Everdeen as she reluctantly leads a revolution against the tyrannical government of Panem and its president, Coriolanus Snow.
“Sunrise on the Reaping” will take place 24 years before the original series, beginning on the morning of the 50th Hunger Games, infamously known as the Second Quarter Quell, which doubled the number of tributes and brought in Haymitch Abernathy, who He would later be Katniss's mentor, in the spotlight.
Hours after the book's announcement, Lionsgate, the studio behind the franchise, said the adaptation of “Sunrise on the Reaping” will be released on November 20, 2026.
No casting announcements have been shared; Director Francis Lawrence is in talks to return to the franchise, according to Lionsgate.
In 2020, Collins released the prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which takes place 64 years before the original series. A film adaptation starring Rachel Zegler as protagonist Lucy Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow was released last November and grossed more than $300 million worldwide.
Fans, including Zegler herself, who once tweeted “girls don't want boys. The girls want Suzanne Collins to release a trilogy about the origin of Haymitch and Abernathy” – have been clamoring for a prequel centered on Haymitch.
On Thursday, the actor joked: “You're welcome guys.”
The five-part “Hunger Games” film franchise has collectively grossed more than $3.3 billion, Lionsgate said. The first four films starred Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch.
