Just last month, we were wondering what Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games Trilogy (among other achievements) might be up to these days. ‘Whatever Happened to Suzanne Collins?’ It turns out, she’s not just been playing sudoku or puttering in the yard (or imitating her creations to tramp through the woods or bake).  We have been hoping that she was writing. Earlier this week, the formal announcement came that confirmed our hopes but which also confirmed some of the fascinating metatextual concerns that have always run under the trilogy: concerns about artistry, yes, but also concerns about control and gamesmanship. Collins is set to roll out a new addition to the story of Panem, a prequel, since, of course, the Games Trilogy is just that, a trilogy, three books, no more, no less, emphasizing the triptych focus so central to the story. Set 64 years before the Games that Katniss and Peeta “win,” this new offering will doubtless cover the Dark Days, renew and continue interest in Collins’s work, and make Hollywood Gamemakers giddy with delight.

A Tough Act to Follow

One concern, of course, is whether or not Collins can make lightning strike again. The Hunger Games trilogy is one of the most remarkable works of fiction to emerge in the last fifty years. More than another angsty teen speed read, the story of Katniss Everdeen is a feast for everyone who experiences it, from the casual reader only concerned about Katniss’s survival to the “deep miner” probing the symbols, structure, and allegories that lie beneath the story, as complex as the layers beneath an Arena.  As should be obvious from the great work in Critical Insights: The Hunger Games, edited by the amazing Dr. Lana Whited, The Hunger Games is worthy of deep study and thought. Will Collins be able to bring that same artistic mastery to bear in a treatment of the Dark Days? Since the setting is 64 years earlier than that of HG few, if any of the characters we already know could be among the cast:  perhaps President Snow, Mags, Plutarch Heavensbee, Seneca Crane (who, in the novels, appears to have been far older than the Mephistopheles-bearded version from the movie) or maybe Caesar Flickerman (Capitol plastic surgery is good!).

Based on the ability she has shown, deftly handling both gripping storytelling and engaging deeper meaning, it is probably safe to hope for Collins’s skills to be equally on display in this new offering, no matter who the players are.

Pumping some Fresh Blood into the Franchise

It’s hard to believe that it has been over 10 years since the first installment of The Hunger Games, and although the series has had far better longevity than many others, the public is fickle and thus, as Gilderoy  Lockhart would remind us, so is fame. Today’s hot trend is tomorrow’s has-been. Like the citizens of the Capitol, the public craves something new, all the time, to satiate its desire for novelty and entertainment. Although the Games continues to be a popular series, one can certainly find a fair few copies of HG, Catching Fire, or Mockingjay on the shelves at the thrift stores, evidence that the once- rabid followers of Katniss’s every move have moved on as surely as if she were an actual tribute in the spectacle of shallow voyeurism that so captivates the Capitol.

Perhaps this new installment will revitalize some of the interest in the original series while also bringing in new readers who missed it the first time around or who were too young.  That would be an excellent development, as, no matter what the merits of the new story may be, we know the original trilogy is brilliant, and if the Dark Days story does nothing more than introduce or revive interest in the original trilogy, that, in itself, is a very good thing.

Who is Gaming Whom?

Although the Games trilogy was not Collins’s first published work, it was such a runaway hit that it put her on the map and on screens across the world. Before the films were made, the novels were not as well known, of course. The first semester I taught the novel in ENG 111, none of my students had ever heard of it, but now, as I continue to use the novel, I run into more and more students who have heard of or seen the films and didn’t even know that they were based on (superior) books. Where I once had students who were amazed that they had never heard of such an amazing novel, I now have many who are amazed that such an amazing novel was the basis for a story they thought they knew, having seen the film.

Those films are, most likely, a very important factor in this new text development. Hollywood Gamemakers know a cash cow when they see it, and they will ignore artistry, textual importance, and almost everything else if they think they can generate revenue. Hence, stories that are finished are nonetheless dragged back into horrifying sequels that are neither good nor needed. Lionsgate, after making a cornucopia of cash on the Games movies (4 of them, because the concept of a triptych structure means nothing if you can crank out an extra blockbuster), has been pushing Collins for more. Of course, she was never going to do a fourth book in the series (she really does understand structural unity and respects the scaffolding on which her fantastic tale hangs).  But a prequel? There might be another chance for Lionsgate to make more movies and thus, more fantastic gobs of money.

Because there has doubtless been pressure on Collins to produce, we can only hope that she, being the savvy artist that she is, will be able to continue her remarkable work even as it is being produced at the behest of the powerful forces that run the entertainment industry. After all, the character in the novel who is the story cipher for Collins is not Katniss, but Cinna, the brilliant, sympathetic designer who understands what is at stake and how to rebel against the machine in which he is a cog. Let’s just hope that, unlike Cinna, Collins gets to enjoy the accolades for her artistry for many years to come.