After movie series like LORD OF THE RINGS and HARRY POTTER ended no time was wasted on continuing to keep the cash stream flowing, which meant going back decades into the past with THE HOBBIT and FANTASTIC BEASTS movies. Now it’s time for the HUNGER GAMES series to go back in time, and it’s been announced that series author Suzanne Collins has completed a new prequel novel that’s ready for a 2020 release, and Lionsgate is already gearing up for the eventual movie adaptation.
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Scholastic announced this morning via Twitter that Collins has written a new novel set in Panem 64 years before the events of the original “Hunger Games” series, taking place at the start of the 10th annual reaping of the Hunger Games. No other details were given, but in the tweet, they revealed the book was set for May 2020.
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Even if Lionsgate didn’t put out a statement regarding a potential movie, everyone would assume they would jump right on it, as that's just how this all works. However, Joe Drake, Chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, was ready to go this morning, saying (via Deadline) “As the proud home of the Hunger Games movies, 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."
The original series of movies launched in 2012 to surprisingly massive numbers, making over $400 million domestically, becoming a global sensation and making star Jennifer Lawrence a household name. The series continued with the more popular CATCHING FIRE in 2013, and across two more movies the series brought in over $3 billion around the world.
Lionsgate initially had plans to develop some prequels to HUNGER GAMES back in 2015, but while everything had been dark on that for a few years it seemed it was inevitable prequels would be happening. The final outing was the lowest-grossing movie of the series, so it didn't exactly go out on the highest of notes, but that doesn't mean fans of the books and movies won't be excited to how Collins expands the world. They'll also line up for whatever movie version (a trilogy?) comes out of this, so I hope you all are ready to read more about teens killing each other in arenas for the next few years.