The Hunger Games adaptation heading to the West End

The play will open in London in 2024

Hunger Games
Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games. (Alamy)

The Hunger Games is heading to the London stage as a theatre adaptation of the Suzanne Collins book series arrives in the capital next year.

Already adapted for film with Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role of Katniss Everdeen, the stage adaptation will tell the story of the first book which features a young woman volunteering for the life or death Hunger Games in place of her baby sister.

While the venue for the show has not yet been revealed, the stage adaptation will premiere in autumn 2024 and is being adapted by Conor McPherson and directed by Matthew Dunster.

The Hunger Games on stage

In this September 7, 2010 photo, author Suzanne Collins poses for a portrait in New York. (AP Photo/Victoria Will)
The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins. (AP Photo)

Author Collins said in a statement: "I'm very excited to be collaborating with the amazing team of Conor McPherson and Matthew Dunster as they bring their dynamic and innovative interpretation of The Hunger Games to the London stage."

McPherson added: "To receive Suzanne Collins’ blessing to adapt The Hunger Games for the stage is both humbling and inspiring. She has created a classic story which continues to resonate now more than ever.

"In a world where the truth itself seems increasingly up for grabs, The Hunger Games beautifully expresses values of resilience, self-reliance and independent moral inquiry for younger people especially.

"This is turbo charged storytelling of the highest order and I’m hugely excited to bring it to a new generation of theatre goers and to Suzanne Collins’ longstanding and devoted fans."

Dunster also expressed his excitement in a statement, saying: "It is the most exciting work call I’ve ever had."

Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Photo Credit: Murray Close
Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. (Murray Close)

The Hunger Games was originally published in 2008 and quickly became a best-seller that spawned two sequels. The trilogy has sold over 65 million copies worldwide. A prequel was later released in 2020.

The book was initially adapted for film in 2012 with Lawrence as Everdeen with the likes of Woody Harrelson, Liam Hemsworth and Stanley Tucci among the ensemble. The other two books were then split into three films and grossed nearly $3 billion.

A film adaptation of the prequel – The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – is set to be released next month and stars Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth.

Read more: The Hunger Games

Watch below: Francis Lawrence rejects splitting The Hunger Games: Mockingjay into two films.