A New Hunger Games Prequel Movie has Officially Been Announced

By Gabby Montilus 

On March 18th, 2025, Suzanne Collins, writer of the Hunger Games series, released her new book, Sunrise on the Reaping. During CinemaCon on April 1st, 2025, it was announced that the book will be turned into the sixth movie in the series. This movie will be released on November 20th, 2026. Fans of this franchise are extremely excited, with some fan posts on X stating, “THIS MOVIE IS GONNA SHATTER ME I’M NOT READY” and “I HAVE CHILLS OH MY GOD”. While there is much excitement and anticipation surrounding this new movie release, some other fans have expressed minor concerns. These mainly consist of worries that the adaptation of the book into a movie will cause the film to be more difficult to understand and not as good as the book, which was written with the idea of it being turned into a movie in mind. 

For more context on the prequel itself, it will be written by returning screenwriter Billy Ray and directed by Francis Lawrence. The movie will follow Haymitch Abernathy, the mentor of Peeta and Katniss, as he experiences the 50th annual games (Second Quarter Quell). It will be set 24 years before “The Hunger Games,” the very first movie within this franchise. It should be interesting for fans to see Haymitch’s journey throughout the games, as he was the only surviving District 12 member, on top of the 47 other tributes (double what it was in past movies). It can be expected that there will be a lot of action and heartache as this will show viewers the very beginning of Haymitch’s trauma, which has led to alcohol abuse, which is shown in past movies. Keep an eye out for this upcoming movie, as it will give even more context to the stories and backgrounds of the characters that continue to develop as this amazing franchise produces more and more films.