“The Hunger Games” trilogy The Xavierite
Throughout history, powerful stories tend to root inside our culture and refuse to leave. Think folklore and fables, or even Shakespeare’s tragedies or Jane Austen’s romances.
There’s no formula to write a book that will stand the test of time, and it’s almost magical when one does. Is it simply luck of the draw? What makes a specific story stick around when nearly three million books are published every year worldwide?
Sixteen years ago, Suzanne Collins published “The Hunger Games,” the first book in a trilogy of the same name. Two months later, it was on the New York Times bestseller list and stayed there for a hundred consecutive weeks. The movie adaptations of the trilogy went on to gross more than $3 billion worldwide.
Although the success of “The Hunger Games” was widespread and impressive, it wasn’t completely unheard of. In fact, young adult dystopian novels and subsequent movie adaptations ruled the early 2010s. Series such as “Divergent” and “The Maze Runner” followed in the footsteps of “The Hunger Games” with similar—albeit scaled down—success.
However, these series were lost to the past. They had their moment, but pop culture eventually moved on and left them in the dust. “The Hunger Games” didn’t suffer this fate, which begs an obvious question: why?
After the original success of “The Hunger Games,” Collins released a prequel novel in 2020 and a corresponding movie adaptation came out in 2023. Both the book and movie saw mass acclaim, proving “The Hunger Games” has held onto relevancy with an iron grip.
Earlier this summer, Collins announced yet another prequel novel to be released in 2025. Not long after, the movie adaptation was confirmed for a 2026 release date.
Dystopia isn’t all the rage like it was ten years ago, so what about “The Hunger Games” continues to capture the world’s attention? Most likely, it’s the combination of marketability and quality storytelling.
At the time of their release, “The Hunger Games” movies were milked for all the romance they were worth. While this arguably reduces the actual message of the story, it no doubt contributed to the success of the series.
Similarly, audiences rarely turn away from action-packed, life-or-death scenarios. This makes the series palatable for those who don’t want to engage with the obvious political commentary and critiques.
If all “The Hunger Games” had to offer was teenage romance and bloody battles, it wouldn’t have the lasting impression it’s achieved. These qualities can be replicated—and have been—in several other series.
What sets “The Hunger Games” apart is the nuance and maturity it lends to themes of colonialism, war, and human nature, which Collins knows have been vital to its legacy.
“In ‘The Hunger Games’ you have vast inequality of wealth, destruction of the planet, political struggles, war as a media event, human rights abuses, propaganda, and a whole lot of other elements that affect human beings wherever they live. I think the story might tap into the anxiety a lot of people feel about the future right now,” Collins said in an exclusive interview found in the tenth-anniversary publication of “The Hunger Games.”
The themes of “The Hunger Games” are timeless. There will always be discussion around the justification of war, and there will always be ways to critique colonialism and its consequences on affected populations.
The movies water down these themes, but at the core of the books, there are universal truths and reflections of our current world.
It’s no small feat to make complex themes like war and human nature digestible enough for wide audiences, but Collins does just that. She doesn’t zero in on more romance because she knows it’s marketable, but she also doesn’t omit it entirely to force the more political themes down readers’ throats.
Collins strikes balance, allowing readers to dig as deep as they please and take what they want from her stories.
“Whether you came for the war, dystopia, action-adventure, propaganda, coming of age, or romance, I’m happy you’re reading it. Everyone brings their own experiences to the book that will color how they interpret it,” Collins says in the same aforementioned interview.
At the end of the day, “The Hunger Games” is a young adult trilogy. It was written for a younger audience, which means many of its readers may not pick up on the more mature themes. I definitely didn’t the first time I read it.
The beauty of the series is the fact that Collins doesn’t sacrifice any complexity for this younger audience. It allows for a more engaging reading experience because as younger readers grow up, they can reread “The Hunger Games” and be confronted with topics they didn’t notice before. The story young readers already love has never-ending layers.
The best stories are universal—applicable to any person at any time. “The Hunger Games” achieves this by weaving nuanced themes through the fabric of more simple, marketable tropes and archetypes. In this way, it’s hard to imagine “The Hunger Games” fading from relevance any time soon.
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