The critically acclaimed author Suzanne Collins is set to release another novel set in the world of The Hunger Games on March 18, 2025.
Sunrise on the Reaping, set during the 50th games, will follow Haymitch Abernathy, the second district twelve victor and mentor to Katniss and Peeta in the original trilogy. The book opens the morning of the reaping-the ceremony in which the tributes for the game are chosen-with a sixteen year-old Haymitch just trying to get through the day. This all changes when he is selected as tribute for the games and is forced to compete and fight against 48 other tributes.
According to Collins, the main book themes will center around propaganda and those who control the narrative. In an interview with Today, Collins referred back to a quote from Mockingjay, saying “the question ‘real or not real’ seems more pressing to me everyday.”
Along with the book, a movie adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping is set to be released in November of 2026. Casting has yet to be announced, but filming is said to begin after the book releases in the latter half of 2025. The series’ past movies have starred Jennifer Lawerence as Katniss and Josh Hutcherson as Peeta in the original trilogy, and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as a young Coriolanus Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes; fans are expecting an up and coming actor to star as Haymitch in the next installment of the series.
Collins previously returned to Panem in 2020, ten years after ending the original trilogy, with the publication and release of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Set 64 years after Katniss’s games, this first prequel centered on Lucy Gray Baird, the first district twelve victor. Fans on social media are extremely excited for a deeper dive into Haymitch’s character and the games that made him into the person Katniss meets in the original trilogy.
Links
https://people.com/new-hunger-games-book-excerpt-sunshine-on-the-reaping-exclusive-8774209
https://www.today.com/popculture/books/sunrise-on-the-reaping-hunger-games-cover-plot-rcna175075
