In the past couple of months, the popular YA book and film series “The Hunger Games” has piqued new interest with another prequel release, sparking speculation around a 2014 dystopian revival.

 “The Hunger Games” is a dystopian post-apocalyptic trilogy set in an authoritarian capitalist America based in the future. The first book was published by Suzanne Collins in 2008, with a movie adaptation released in 2012, quickly after the book gained popularity.

Collins has authored many books before “The Hunger Games” rose to fame. Before “Hunger Games,” Collins wrote “Gregor the Overlander,” a book popular among pre-teens at the time. 

Popularity of the series launched the dystopian genre into the mainstream, with the first movie alone achieving a $695.2 million profit and many awards.

While dystopian stories have done well for decades, George Orwell’s “1984” being one such notable example, Collin’s series caused a new wave of American dystopian fantasy to trend.

From “Divergent,” “The Uglies” and “Matched,” the 2010s were filled with dystopian young adult romance. While “The Hunger Games” does not match all the characteristics of this genre trend, it is widely believed that the series is what started the 2010s dystopian craze.

A common complaint from this genre was that it became overdone or watered down over time, losing the uniqueness. 

The YA dystopian genre in film seemingly died out with films like “The Darkest Minds” and the second installment of “Divergent.” Despite a falling out of the genre, “The Hunger Games” remains steady, as seen with the release of the 2023 film adaptation of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which earned $349 million worldwide.

The latest installment of the series is “Sunrise on the Reaping,” a prequel focused on Katniss’s mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, and the first game he was reaped for. The cover of the novel shows a flint striker with a bird and snake on each end, representing the rebellion and Snow respectively, and illustrating how Haymitch sparked the rebellion in the original “The Hunger Games” trilogy.

With the book having been released only one month ago and a movie is already in the works, students are excited.

“I remember reading his games in ‘Catching Fire’, and I always wanted to find out more,” said Ridgley Fenters, an English master’s student. “I’m really excited we now get to see Haymitch. I can already tell that it holds really true to the character of Haymitch, and you get to see how he turned into who he was in the first ‘Hunger Games’ book.”

No official news has come out about who will play Haymitch, the main character of “Sunrise on the Reaping,” played by Woody Harrelson in the original series. Many actors, such as Tom Glynn-Carney, Rudy Pankow, Mike Faist and Louis Hofmann, have been fan-cast.

Many fans have suggested for Keifer Sutherland to play President Snow in the prequel. Keifer Sutherland is the son of the original actor for President Snow, Donald Sutherland.

Keifer Sutherland bears a strong resemblance to his father and is well known for his villainous roles, leading many to fan-cast him as a middle-aged President Snow.

“I would love for Donald Sutherland’s son to play President Snow,” Ridgley Fenters said. “I think it would be a full circle moment.” 

Many students did not have strong feelings about who was casted, as long as they were age appropriate. Some students liked the possibility of Elle Fanning playing a young Effie, and others liked Keifer Sutherland playing Snow, but overall, people did not have a strong preferred casting.

“I’m not too picky on the casting, as long as it still holds true to what Collin wants,” Fenters said. ‘The Hunger Games’ movies tend to be good about doing that.”

Collins has relayed that she writes when she is influenced by real-world events, as she has stated the original trilogy was inspired by a combination of reality tv and war-coverage she has viewed at the time. While support of a specific party or system is never directly said or implied, many students feel that her writing heavily reflects past and current issues the U.S. is facing or faced.

“Honestly, I think she wrote ahead of the political landscape,” said Sarah Neilson, a creative writing graduate student. “Collins’s writing about the modern day, I think that’s the main influence for her writing. I think the books are more relevant than they’ve ever been.”

Collins also focuses heavily on found family, trauma and serious psychological topics. The original series deals with topics of PTSD, political turmoil, class and societal inequality. Haymith’s trauma will be explored more in depth in “Sunrise on the Reaping.”

“I think Haymitch Abernathy is one of the most informative illustrations of the impact of trauma that I’ve ever seen,” Neilson said. “I think you could assign “Sunrise on the Reaping” in particular in psychology classes. It’s one of the most fearless portrayals of trauma I’ve seen.”

Not everyone is excited though, some students felt the dystopian genre is overdone, or that “The Hunger Games” is too on the nose in its themes.

“It feels like [the movie] is such a generalization, and all that it’s done is just spawn more copies of the exact same movie,” said Paige Adams, a sophomore English major. “The young adult dystopian genre has fallen off.”