It’s been two hours since Sunrise on the Reaping was announced. Lionsgate couldn’t wait another second to make a movie about it.
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Not only are fans of The Hunger Games getting an all-new novel from Suzanne Collins in 2025, but that book will be a movie soon after. Lionsgate announced today that they are already in development on a new Hunger Games movie based on The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The book will follow the events of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which adapted into a film in 2023 with Rachel Zegler in the lead role. Collins’s book will have about a year to get fans excited, as Lionsgate’s statement says the movie adaptation will be in theaters in late 2026.
In Sunrise on the Reaping, the 50th Hunger Games will serve as the focus of the story. Collins says she was inspired by the works of philosopher David Hume and his examination of propaganda and control.
“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,'” Collins said in a statement. “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.”
It’s hardly a surprise Lionsgate is putting out another Hunger Games film. Even before there were new books to adapt, they were reportedly toying with taking the property into TV. It is one of a number of franchises that Lionsgate has been keen to make more and more of, with other notable examples being Twilight, RED, and John Wick.
According to the statement from Lionsgate, “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events ofThe Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.”
Francis Lawrence, who has directed every Hunger Games film since Catching Fire, is in talks to return for Sunrise on the Reaping.
Franchise producer Nina Jacobson, alongside her producing partner Brad Simpson, will return to produce The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping under their Color Force banner. It will be the sixth outing for Color Force since bringing the franchise to Lionsgate in 2012.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be released in theaters in North America beginning on November 20, 2026. The book is available to pre-order on Amazon now.