The Hunger Games movie franchise effectively ended with 2015's Mockingjay pt. 2, and before it was out of theaters Lionsgate was eager to get started on more. But since then we've seen the YA genre tank, with multiple attempts to start new franchises flopping hard. If there's anything that might be able to revive it, a new Hunger Games movie could do it.
According to Deadline, author Suzanne Collins is close to completion on a new book that would be set 64 years before events in The Hunger Games, on the morning of the 10th reaping, which is when kids are chosen as tributes in the life-or-death competition.
Lionsgate has never really stopped trying to find the next Hunger Games, so unsurprisingly they leaped to confirm that Collins' next book will indeed be turned into a movie. Chairman Joe Drake said...
“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.”
Collins talked about her return to that universe and what she hoped to achieve with this new book...
“With this book, I wanted to explore the state of nature, who we are, and what we perceive is required for our survival. The reconstruction period ten years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days—as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet—provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity.”
So don't expect to see Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, or any of the previous castmembers. The four Hunger Games movies combined for nearly $3B worldwide and there's no reason for Lionsgate or Collins to ever let it go. The new book publishes in May 2020.
