Cover Reveal and What to Expect From the Upcoming Hunger Games Book and Movie

Fans of the blockbuster The Hunger Games series are in for two new thrilling installments in the world of Panem soon. Scholastic Publishing recently announced it has acquired the world English rights to the fifth entry in Suzanne Collins’ series, Sunrise on the Reaping, which “will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games.” The novel, which is slated for release on March 18, 2025, will also be adapted into a feature film by Lionsgate Pictures. Frances Lawrence, who directed prior installments, is in talks to helm the November 2026 release. The Hunger Games books have sold over 100 million copies and have been translated into multiple languages, and the film franchise earned more than $3.3 billion at the box office.

The story will begin on the morning of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell. As readers know, the annual Hunger Games pitted children from Panem’s 12 districts against each other in gory battles to the death. The government used the cruel competitions as a propaganda technique and to discourage uprisings among the impoverished, enslaved residents of the districts.

 Set 40 years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, (Scholastic) the Second Quarter Quell was the won by Haymitch Abernathy, mentor of the Hunger Games’ heroine, Katniss Everdeen. The hard-drinking, initially uncaring Haymitch, guided Katniss and her partner Peeta Mellark of Panem’s District 12 to victory through his manipulative and polarizing strategies.

It is expected that Sunrise on the Reaping will explore the teenage Haymitch’s victory and the dire consequences of his actions. Readers will recall that during Haymitch’s Second Quarter Quell games, four tributes rather than the two represented the districts. The second book, Catching Fire, revealed that Haymitch befriended the original owner of Katniss’ Mockingjay pin, but he was later forced to watch her die. Later, the severely wounded Haymitch became the victor by using his mental acuity, rather than his physical strength, to shelter inside a force field to beat the favored tribute. His survival displeased the Capitol, and President Coriolanus Snow ordered the death of his family in retaliation, leaving Haymitch to become a bitter alcoholic.

On returning to the world of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins said, “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.’ 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.” David Hume was an 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher who believed that human knowledge is derived solely from experience, and that the future will resemble the past.

Luckily, readers will not need to wait until next year to satisfy their craving for another Hunger Games fix. On October 1, 2024, The Hunger Games returned to the beginning when an illustrated edition of the original book — the one that began the series — hit the bookstores. The new edition features thirty striking black-and-white scratchboard illustrations by Nico Delort, a visual artist based in Paris. This graphic edition creates a brand new look for Panem and its inhabitants, and gives readers a motive to revisit an old favorite to experience Katniss and Panem through new eyes.

Haymitch Abernathy has long been a fan favorite and an integral character to the development of the Hunger Games franchise. In Sunrise on the Reaping, Collins will finally spotlight his origin story and help readers understand the complicated man behind the controversial Second Quarter Quell victory.