A few weeks ago, the trailer dropped for Sunrise on the Reaping’s film adaptation and, while I’m sure you know a few things about The Hunger Games, here is a brief rundown so that you can understand all the coming internet discourse. The Hunger Games introduces us to Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl from District 12 in the country of Panem. Panem is a dystopian version of North America, led by an incredibly wealthy and powerful federal district referred to as “The Capital” and 12 other districts all falling under the power of President Snow. Panem functions as a totalitarian dictatorship with the Capital using economic power as well as police force to pressure the districts into compliance. The Capital holds an annual tournament where two children from each of the 12 districts are selected at random as “tributes” to compete in a fight to the death. By the end of the first book, both tributes from 12, Katniss and the male tribute Peeta Mellark, have won the games and become the first two tributes to ever both survive.
Book two, Catching Fire, takes place during a quarter quell (which is a special version of the games that takes place every 25 years and includes special prompts to make the games “more interesting”). For the 75th (the games taking place in book two), all tributes are selected from the existing pool of victors. This leads to both Katniss and Peeta returning to the games. Audiences also get more information about other characters like Finnick Odare, a victor from District 4, Johanna Mason, a victor from District 7 and Haymitch Abernathy from District 12, who was Katniss and Peeta’s mentor from book one. By the end of the book, the stage is set for the rebellion, which will take place in Mockingjay. In book three, all the characters we previously encountered come back and join the rebellion against the Capital. The battle between the two powers is rather disturbing, but eventually the rebels are successful. The original trilogy has a really beautiful ending that I don’t want to spoil, so I highly encourage you to read the book!
After the completion of the original trilogy, Collins released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which is a prequel and follows the story of President Snow and his time in school. It also introduces us to District 12’s mysterious first victor, Lucy Gray Baird. Lucy is part of the Covey, a nomadic group native to Panem who, now, due to the highly rigid borders enforced by the Capital, are stuck in 12. In this installment, we learn more about the lives of the Capital citizens and the way that the Games came to become so extravagant and showy. This book also received its own movie adaptation a few years ago.
Okay! Finally, it’s time for Sunrise on the Reaping. This is another prequel, but it takes place a few years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The protagonist of this story is Haymitch Abernathy (remember him?). As a result of some truly unfortunate circumstances, Haymitch finds himself reaped on his 16th birthday; this year is also a quarter quell and as a result number of tributes is doubled, meaning that a total of 48 tributes are playing in these games. Something to look out for in this new movie is a few returning characters that you might recognize. If you are a diehard (like me), then my advice would be to look out for some tributes that you’ve seen in the past and to keep an eye out for some familiar last names. Lastly, like any other piece of Hunger Games media, while the relationships, the music and the clothing are a lot of fun and are very important to the story, it’s equally as important to look out for the political/social critique. Following the previous trends, there are themes of class division, authoritarianism and war; however, there is a further emphasis on propaganda and media manipulation. So make sure you keep these points in mind when you go to theaters next November!