Suzanne Collins is returning to the dystopian world of Panem, with a book revolving around the games Haymitch Abernathy won.
Fans of Suzanne Collins‘ hit book series, The Hunger Games, can expect the fifth installment as early as 2025 — and the movie adaptation the year after!
Scholastic announced Thursday that the newest book, titled Sunrise on the Reaping, will be published on March 18, 2025. The second prequel will take place 40 years after Collins’ latest book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and 24 years before The Hunger Games.
The story will start on Reaping Day for the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, or second ‘Quarter Quell’ of the games occurring every 25 years. It’s worth noting that the victor of said games was District 12’s very own Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss Everdeen’s eventual mentor, played by Woody Harrelson in the films.
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Lionsgate, which has released all four of the previous movie adaptations, released a statement later on Thursday confirming that a film adaption of Sunrise on the Reaping is expected to open in theaters on November 20, 2026. Director Francis Lawrence, who had worked on every film in the series except the first, is returning to direct the film.
This is the second prequel to come in the Hunger Games universe.
Collins released the first prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, in 2020 — following the story of a young Coriolanus Snow before he became the dictator of Panem. Its movie adaptation was released by Lionsgate in 2023, which starred Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, another District 12 Victor.
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The book debuted at number one on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list and the film grossed $200 million at the global box office — holding the number one spot for three weekends.
Funnily enough, in 2021, Zegler tweeted, “girls don’t want boys. girls want suzanne collins to release a haymitch abernathy origin trilogy.” She followed that post up today with one joking, “You’re welcome guys.”
you’re welcome guys https://t.co/KbMfebjJNZ
— rachel zegler (she/her/hers) (@rachelzegler) June 6, 2024
@rachelzegler
It has been 16 years since the world was first introduced to the original dystopian trilogy’s protagonist Katniss Everdeen, aka “The Girl on Fire,” in Collins’ immensely popular books.
Played by Jennifer Lawrence in the movies, the series chronicled her her never-ending objective of survival both in ‘The Games’ and in her quest of revolutionizing the country of Panem.
Although many details are not known about this new prequel, the odds, clearly, are ever in fans’ favor.
