An avid “Hunger Games” fan sits on their phone scrolling through social media, seeing post after post about the new “Hunger Games” book, “Sunrise on the Reaping.” Most of which hyper-analyze a snippet of the first chapter or debate who should play the main character in the movie adaptation. As they scroll through the multitude of posts they can’t help but wonder if the fanbase has lost the message that these books are trying to send, and have, instead, focused on trying to get more content out of the author.

The author of “Hunger Games,” Suzanne Collins, announced that the prequel “Sunrise on the Reaping” is set to release on March 18, and according to Scholastic, 2.5 million copies are ready for release in either print, audio or other digital formats. A movie adaptation has also been confirmed for release on Nov. 20, 2026.

The book’s overarching themes revolve around consumerism and opposing government control, but because this was an unexpected announcement and is anticipated to be the final book in the series, fans have had much more exaggerated reactions, causing them to forget these themes.

Since Collins released the first excerpt from the new book on Jan. 15, the internet has been full of fans forming theory after theory, a significant number of them stretching details that have been confirmed to form far-fetched guesses about where the series is going.

A common trait between “Hunger Games” characters is their ability to strategize and stay one step ahead of the antagonist, and this is unsurprisingly similar to what the fans have been trying to do. They are focused on guessing how characters, new or old, will be connected to each other before the book does it for them. And regardless if the theories are right or wrong, they fail to explain the purpose of these characters’ appearances, ignoring any political statement that Collins was trying to make.

But this isn’t the only way the fandom has obsessed over these characters.

Fans have also had a lot to say on who will play the major characters in the movie adaptation of “Sunrise on the Reaping,” which is somewhat premature considering that the book is just now coming out.

This focus has given many media outlets, such as MovieWeb or ScreenRant, the opportunity to chime in on the wrong conversation.

Fans should, instead, be talking about the major themes, especially overconsumption, since it is becoming much more prevalent.

The special additions and movie adaptations have made it hard to believe that this series isn’t turning into one big cash grab, but Collins has been vocal about the charity work that she does with “Hunger Games” profits.

This included donating over one million dollars of the “Hunger Games” profits to charities, such as the Authors Guild Foundation, Authors League Fund, and One Million Bookprints for One Million Books. All of which work to donate money to authors in need or donate books to children in need.

Collins has proved that the “Hunger Games” is not a cash grab, and this puts pressure on the readers to take the time to spread this message as well, which they are not doing.

“That’s the way she says something,” sophomore Sofia LoPresti said. ”So if she’s releasing another book, that means that she has something to say, and people are not getting it.”

Many fans have countered this argument by saying it is just another book series. But this isn’t true.

With overconsumption and governmental control becoming more important to identify in our own lives, stories such as Collins’ are important to share. People need to be able to draw comparisons to the dramatization of this story, so problems with oppression or exploitation can be identified and fixed before it gets to this extreme.