The Hunger Games franchise continues to grow and expand, and it’s got its sights set on perhaps the most thrilling new direction yet.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes already rewound things quite a bit, taking the story back to the 10th Hunger Games, and zeroing in on a character fans learned to hate over a trio of books and tetralogy of films. The man that would become President Snow is only 18 in the 2020 release, and — despite the fact that we all knew where he was heading — the heartthrob of a future dictator won over plenty of fresh fans with his unexpected origin story.
Now, the franchise is zeroing in on a much more inherently popular character. Haymitch Abernathy has his issues, and heaps of them at that, but he’s also among the most interesting characters in the entire story. Bitter and defeated, drinking himself into a stupor on a daily basis, fans only know the Haymitch of a later era. He’s a vital element of Katniss’ story, and without his careful, if inebriated, guidance, the rebellion never could have hoped to succeed, but he’s also an acerbic mess who requires some serious tidying up before he can save much of anyone.
But that’s not the Haymitch we’ll be getting in the upcoming fifth Hunger Games book. Following Songbirds and Snakes by a good few years and predating the Hunger Games trilogy by a good two and a half decades, the latest project in the dystopian universe is set to zero in on the District 12 victor’s early days.
Long before President Snow beat the rebellious spirit out of him, Haymitch was an entirely different man. He won the second Quarter Quell 24 years before Primrose Everdeen’s name was selected, emerging as the victor of the 50th Hunger Games. He was subsequently punished for his clever use of the arena’s weak points, and used as an example of what happens to those who defy the Capitol. As a result, Haymitch gradually sank into a cynical depression, and transformed into the man we know so well from the quartet of Hunger Games films from the 2010s.
Now that the fresh project has been announced, fans are already dreaming up the film adaptation. It’s already been confirmed to get an on-screen version, which will likely follow the book by just a few years — Songbirds and Snakes took three — and, with reports that Haymitch is set to take the lead in the new story, fans are already on the hunt for an eye-catching young Haymitch a la Tom Blyth’s smoldering Coriolanus Snow.
There are a million stars who could play the part, but the question of who will play it best still stands. Haymitch is a beloved and complex character, and one that has the potential to outdo the original if approached right. The book will need to actually release before we start casting the movie, of course, but fans can’t help but dream up a gorgeous future for the franchise once Sunrise On The Reaping hits shelves, and later the big screen.
