What do you do when a lucrative franchise is coming to an end? That’s the question plaguing Lionsgate right now, as they face a future in which their Hunger Games franchise no longer plays a part. With the final film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, coming to theaters this November, Lionsgate is searching for ways to possibly extend this franchise even further than they already have.
According to Deadline (via /Film), Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer is looking into prequel and further sequel ideas for The Hunger Games franchise – that’s despite the fact that there are no further novels in the series by Suzanne Collins. Although he’s not being very specific, it’s perfectly possible for Lionsgate to try to carry on this franchise in the same way that Warner Brothers has been extending the Harry Potter universe. The only question is: how?
A prequel to the series somehow makes more sense than a sequel, given that The Hunger Games picks up in the middle of a defined dystopian society. There’s nothing stopping the development of stories prior to those events, after all. Sequels might potentially mean the continued involvement of Jennifer Lawrence, who’s unlikely to want to keep on playing the part of Katniss.
Of course, Lionsgate could just let a good thing lie. They have had a strong run with The Hunger Games films, even managing to get two movies out of the last book. Why not just it rest and move on to something else? There must be other popular franchises out there to be exploited, and other dystopian societies to be discovered. Lionsgate could even try their hands at producing something original!
We will let you know what the future holds for The Hunger Games and Lionsgate when we hear anything further. For now, however, we still have Mockingjay – Part 2 to look forward to when it premieres in November.
