Just because we don’t “need” more Hunger Games books doesn’t mean we haven’t already pre-ordered ours

There is a lot we still don’t know about Suzanne Collins’ new Hunger Games novel. But we do know we’re going to start reading it as soon as it comes out.

When it comes to movies, TV, and books, the question of whether or not we “need” sequels and prequels to our favorite franchises is always “no.” (The question of whether or not we need more remakes and reboots is also always “no.” Please stop.)

But you also don’t “need” more books, for example — you already have 63 unread books on your shelves, you literally cannot keep buying more books — and yet somehow Amazon keeps magically sending you more. How does that even happen?

The Hunger Games, one of our favorite YA dystopian series of the late 2000s and early 2010s tied up its loose ends so nicely — both in the books and their film adaptions — that it’s nearly impossible not to reread and rewatch them over and over just for that warm feeling of satisfaction at the end, mixed in with the heartbreak of, well, everything that happens before that.

We never expected to get more. We never really knew we wanted it. We definitely still don’t technically “need” it.

But at least one Culturess writer may have pre-ordered a copy of Suzanne Collins’ new Hunger Games novel the second it went up on Amazon. So, “need” is a mostly irrelevant concept when it comes to anything with a Mockingjay on it, apparently.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes doesn’t come out until May. But you better believe we’re going to be hoping and speculating about its plot and characters obsessively until then.

Before Katniss, before Peeta and Gale, and even before Haymitch, the Hunger Games were still relatively new. And it hadn’t been all that long since the First Rebellion left the districts of Panem defeated and subject to a mandatory annual “game” forcing children to fight to the death — not a fun game, in case you weren’t sure.

All we really know about the book at this point is that it takes place during the Dark Days of Panem — the period after the Hunger Games are established. We do know there might be a movie. At the very least, Lionsgate (the studio that produced the original trilogy of movies) is considering it.

Collins’ new book will take place during the 10th Hunger Games, 64 years before the events of the original Hunger Games novel. The cover features a Mockingjay resting on a branch above a serpent. What the serpent means, we’re not quite sure — unless it’s a callback to the conflict between Katniss and the Capitol.

Mockingjays were a unique species of bird in Collins’ fictional world, but they eventually became the symbol for the Second Rebellion and its face and leader (Katniss). There isn’t a full-scale rebellion for another six decades at this point, but we do know there were small acts of pushback here and there — Haymitch’s stunt to win his Games really ticked off the Capitol, but not nearly as severely as Katniss does.

Could we see a different characters’ attempt to start an uprising and watch them plant seeds for what happens later? Maybe we’ll see tributes quietly learning how to manipulate the system and the Capitol’s drastic and desperate attempts to make sure that doesn’t keep happening.

We know there probably isn’t another “future” in Panem to explore storywise, though — the epilogue of Mockingjay pretty much took care of that. It shows Katniss in the future imagining what it will be like to tell her children about the Games, which by that point are no more.

The last few pages of that book are possibly some of the best writing in any YA novel of its kind — Mockingjay Part 2 ended with a very close Jennifer Lawrence-delivered voiceover adaption of the epilogue, some of it word for word, and there would have been no better way to close out the trilogy either in book or film form.

You can’t go past that. You can only go backward.

Hence, a prequel. And maybe not even the only prequel, for all we know. We could get another trilogy, all depending on the specific material this book covers, who the characters are, and how their story fits into the overarching themes of Collins’ fictional world.

Do we need more Hunger Games stories? Not any more than we need more Harry Potter or Star Wars or Marvel movies or another Matrix sequel. But hey, more often than not, fans will always give the “unnecessary more” a chance. They might even like it.

You can now pre-order The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which releases on May 19, 2020.