It’s not the end for Panem after all! Or at least not if we go back in time a few years.
This week, it was announced that not only will there be another book in the Hunger Games franchise, but that book will also make it to the big screen.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is the upcoming prequel from Suzanne Collins which hits bookshelves on March 18th, 2025. The movie adaptation is aiming for a November 20th, 2026 release date, though that could always be shifted around.
Welcome to the Second Quarter Quell.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping – in theaters November 20, 2026. pic.twitter.com/nuRcxtDZ7B
— The Hunger Games (@TheHungerGames) June 6, 2024
The upcoming installment will tell the story of the Second Quarter Quell, which took place 24 years before Katniss took part in The Hunger Games. The story will follow a young Haymitch Abernathy, who becomes a tribute from District 12. By the time he meets Katniss, Haymitch is a grumpy middle-aged man, but as a tribute, he was described as a quick-thinker who outsmarted the games and eventually wins.
“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 announcement comes just months after the Rachel Zelger-led prequel The Hunger Games: Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes hit theaters and became a modest box office hit. The prequel was also based on the novel of the same name, which was released in 2020, and takes place roughly 40 years before the events of Sunrise on the Reaping .
The good news about those fun Hunger Games is that there were over 70 of them, which could in turn become 70 movies. Just a thought!