TheHunger Gamesfranchise isn’t finished just yet. Over a decade afterSuzanne Collinsfirst publishedThe Hunger Games, the first in a trilogy of massively popular dystopian sci-fi novels, the author is returning to the franchise for a prequel story. Scholastic announced today that Collins is writing an untitledHunger Gamesprequel novel set in Panem 64 years before the events of the original trilogy. If you’ll recall, that trilogy’s story found hero Katniss surging in popularity on the televised deathmatch The Hunger Games, then subsequently leading an uprising against the fascist government.
Collins’ prequel novel is due to be published on June 14, 2025, butJoe Drake, Chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture group revealed today that the studio is already developing a film adaptation in tandem with Collins:
“As the proud home of theHunger Gamesmovies, we can hardly wait for Suzanne’s next book to be published. We’ve been communicating with her during the writing process and we look forward to continuing to work closely with her on the movie.”
ProducerNina Jacobsonalso tweetedthe “cat’s out of the bag,” implying that she’ll return to help spearhead this film adaptation just as she did the original trilogy.
The firstHunger Gamesmovie hit theaters in 2012 and set box office records for opening day and the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel film, taking many in Hollywood by surprise. Indeed, the film scored a whopping $694.4 million worldwide against a modest budget of just $78 million and turnedJennifer Lawrenceinto a bona fide movie star. The sequelThe Hunger Games: Catching Firewas even more successful, grossing $865 million worldwide (albeit with a bigger budget), but the final two films—which split the third book in Collins’ trilogy in half—backslid a bit withMockingjay – Part 1grossing $755.4 million andMockingjay – Part 2hitting a franchise low with $653.4 million.
Other studios tried to replicate theHunger Gamesfranchise’s success, including Lionsgate’s sister studio Summit with theDivergentseries, but none hit the same heights and few could even call themselves modest hits.The Hunger Gameswas a truly unique phenomenon.
Lionsgate has made no secret of its desire to keep this franchise going, and prequel ideas have been teased for years. Given that the firstHunger Gamesis set during the 74th Hunger Games and this new book takes place 64 years earlier, one surmises its set during the events of the 10th annual Hunger Games. It’d be quite redundant to follow a new hero through another Hunger Games event, so here’s hoping the scope and focus of this new novel is rather different.
The possibilities are many, as evidenced by our previous article running downeight prequel stories we actually want to see. It’ll be interesting to see where Collins lands. What do you think folks? What doyouwant to see out of aHunger Gamesprequel? Sound off in the comments below.
