New Hunger Games Project Officially Coming In 2024

The Hunger Games has remained one of the most enduring young adult properties that came out during the late 2000s and early 2010s. "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," a prequel book to the original trilogy, came out in 2020. Its film adaptation, starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, will premiere on November 17. Anyone hungry for more Hunger Games should be delighted to hear the story's receiving a stage play adaptation due to be released sometime in the autumn of 2024. 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the play will adapt the first book by Suzanne Collins and debut in London. Conor McPherson, who won the Laurence Olivier Award for his work on "The Weir," has adapted the novel for the stage, and it will be directed by Matthew Dunster, who previously oversaw "2:22: A Ghost Story" and "A Very Very Very Dark Matter."

Collins provided a statement about her enthusiasm for the project, "I'm very excited to be collaborating with the amazing team of Conor McPherson and Matthew Dunster as they bring their dynamic and innovative interpretation of 'The Hunger Games' to the London stage." Of course, the question now is how the team will adapt the bloody, violent narrative of teenagers killing each other for the stage.

The new Hunger Games play isn't the first attempt to bring the franchise to the theatre crowd. In the mid-2010s, there were plans for a Hunger Games musical that would've involved building a revolving theater in Wembley Park. Sadly, that never came to fruition, so the world was deprived of what surely would've been a somber number when Katniss volunteers to take Prim's place as tribute.

A straightforward play might be the better way to go, and the message at the story's heart still rings true. While "The Hunger Games" is set in a dystopian future, its themes of income inequality and using trauma as entertainment remain relevant. Playwright Conor McPherson released his own statement expressing that's what drew him to the project: "In a world where the truth itself seems increasingly up for grabs, 'The Hunger Games' beautifully expresses values of resilience, self-reliance and independent moral inquiry for younger people especially."

Not much is known about the play at this point, but information regarding casting and where in London it'll premiere will likely come in the near future. News of the "Hunger Games" play adaptation follows a recent trend of adapting popular film and television properties for the stage, such as a "Stranger Things" prequel play, which comes to the West End in London in November. With Hollywood always looking to mine famous IPs, it was only a matter of time before that mindset reached the theatre.