THE HUNGER GAMES: A Brief History Of YA Adaptations

From 2008 until around 2016, film adaptations of Young Adult literature came into Hollywood like a storm. A clear start of this trend was the release of Twilight in 2008. From then on, it seemed as though every popular dystopian YA series was getting film treatment.

With the release of the Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes last November, it will be interesting to see what impact it could have on the future of popular book adaptations in the YA genre. In this article, I’ll take a look back at the turbulent history of YA adaptations, and why despite a few slumps this might only just be the beginning.

Twilight

Some would say that the first sign of success for YA adaptations was Twilight. Both the books and the films became a one-of-a-kind phenomenon in terms of popularity. If by some chance you’ve never seen at least the first film, Twilight (based on the book of the same name by Stephanie Meyer) follows the story of teenager Bella Swan when she moves to the rainy and dull Forks, Washington, where she meets the elusive and very much non-aging Cullen family.

Twilight (2008) – source: Summit Entertainment

Twilight really took the world by storm and quickly became a massive franchise that started a brand-new trend. It kickstarted a flurry of adapted projects that also had huge and predominantly female fanbases.

The Hunger Games Universe

The Hunger Games franchise was its own phenomenon. By the time the first film was released in 2012, the books were already massively popular in their own right, and the movie was hugely anticipated. Thankfully, Lionsgate got this one right. To me, The Hunger Games is impressively loyal to the books, while still making changes here and there that only elevate the work. The movies only get better with Catching Fire.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an adaptation of Suzanne Collins‘ prequel novel of the same title. It follows the original trilogy’s villain Corolanius Snow, before he’s known as President Snow, as he navigates university and becomes the mentor of a District 12 girl for the 10th Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) – source: Lionsgate Films

The film had a varied critical response, but it was a box office success. The real secret to its success was that it was fully embraced by both fans of the original books and the movies, who had been waiting to see more from their favorite fictional world. The film also has some really cool callbacks to the original trilogy even though it’s a prequel. Some are as subtle as little parts of the score, while there are some direct references.

Much like Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Hunger Games franchise has a very well-established fanbase, and if Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ success at the box office was anything to go by, those fans will show up for more. I think it would be poetic if The Hunger Games revived YA adaptations after the impact the original movies had.

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is one of the most beloved book series of the last few decades, and it has had Hollywood treatment not once but twice. Disney+’s rendition of the Greek mythology series spans eight episodes and honors the books while adding its own fun spin on the characters and the world they live in.

Before this came Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief, and Percy Jackson and The Sea of Monsters. The films suffered critically and with audiences, and the show has been much more positively received by both.

Does TV Work Better?

Typically, fantasy franchises are extremely difficult to produce. For starters, CGI is expensive, and it makes sense that studios wouldn’t want to put millions into a possible four movie franchise only for it to fail at the sequel. For every great adapted franchise like The Hunger Games, there is a less well-received one, like the Divergent franchise which was axed after the third movie.

There was also The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones, which didn’t even get a second movie. It did however get adapted into a series called Shadowhunters, which changed a lot of the source material but ultimately ran for three full seasons before getting cancelled.

Shadow and Bone (2021) – source: Netflix

That being said, streaming sites like Netflix and Disney+ are having more luck with YA projects. Although it’s been canceled after two seasons, Netflix’s adaptation of Leigh Bardugo‘s Shadow and Bone had a positive reception. The advantage of TV is that showrunners are not bound to a time constraint of 2 hours. Shadow and Bone ran for two seasons, each with 8 one hour long episodes. This gave showrunners time to really delve into the characters and focus on details and elements of the books that might have been left out otherwise.

The same can be said for Percy Jackson and The Olympians. Although the episodes vary in length, the entire first season covers the first book. It’s even cooler that the new version of Percy Jackson seems to have improved on previous adaptations.

Of course, there are also downsides to this, like a show getting canceled midway through the story when the original plan was to cover all the books. I’ve seen this happen for too many great shows and it doesn’t get easier, especially when your favorite scene will end up not happening.

The Future

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and the rising popularity of YA, especially on TikTok, show that there is still a bright future ahead for YA adaptations. Whether that’s a few more Hunger Games prequels or adaptations of more current popular book series like Victoria Aveyard‘s Red Queen or A Court of Thorns and Roses By Sarah J Maas (both of which have TV projects in the works already), I think there’s still lots of potential within the genre. And who knows? 10 years down the line we could be getting a third Hunger Games prequel. With such a huge genre, the possibilities are limitless.

Do you have a favorite YA adaptation? Let us know in the comments!