The Odds Are in Your Favour for Another 'Hunger Games' Prequel Book in 2025, Then a Movie in 2026

Suzanne Collins is entering the arena again. She's also stepping back into Panem and The Hunger Games' past, and into the tale of a well-known character from her initial three books in the dystopian franchise. After first going down the prequel route with 2020's The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the author has announced that Sunrise on the Reaping is on its way. The fifth novel in the series will arrive in 2025.

This news isn't just about a fresh opportunity to explore all things The Hunger Games on the page, however. It took three years for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes to become a movie, but Sunrise on the Reaping will hit the big screen just a year after the book makes its way shelves. So, also mark 2026 in your diary — because the odds of spending more time in The Hunger Games' world are definitely in your favour thanks to the saga's sixth flick.

As a novel, Sunrise on the Reaping has a Tuesday, March 18, 2025 release date, including Down Under. As a film, it'll get flickering in picture palaces on Friday, November 20, 2026 in the US — which will likely mean Thursday, November 19, 2026 in Australia and New Zealand.

Both versions will tell a tale set around the Second Quarter Quell, presumably pushing Haymitch Abernathy to the fore as he won those games — the 50th, which took place 24 years before Abernathy met Katniss Everdeen in the first The Hunger Games book. Sunrise on the Reaping's narrative will start on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games.

"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'," said Collins in a statement announcing the new novel in the franchise that she started with the initial 2008–10 trilogy.

"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."

In 2012–15 movies The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part II, Woody Harrelson (Suncoast) played Haymitch. There's no word yet who'll slip into the character's shoes in his younger years in the Sunrise on the Reaping film, which has been named The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

It's also far too early for any other casting details, or news on who'll be directing the flick that's following The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes to the screen. That movie gave Coriolanus Snow an origin story, charting his life before he became President of Panem and kept having encounters with Katniss, when he was an 18-year-old Capitol resident tasked with mentoring District 12's female tribute. Set 64 years prior to the first The Hunger Games, it enlisted Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid) to do his best to become a young Donald Sutherland (Lawmen: Bass Reeves), with Rachel Zegler (Shazam! Fury of the Gods), Peter Dinklage (Unfrosted), Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City), Viola Davis (Air) and Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) co-starring.

There's obviously no trailer yet for trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, but you can check out the trailer for all of the past Hunger Games movies below:

Sunrise on the Reaping will hit bookstores on Tuesday, March 18, 2025 and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will reach cinemas on Friday, November 20, 2026 in the US — which will likely mean Thursday, November 19, 2026 Down Under. We'll update you with more details when they're announced.

Images: Murray Close.