The connection to the myth of Theseus happened immediately. SC: I was such a huge Greek mythology geek as a kid, it’s impossible for it not to come into play in my storytelling. Do the districts have the authority to wage war? What is their chance of success? How does the re-emergence of District 13 alter the situation? When we enter the story, Panem is a powder keg and Katniss the spark.ĭL: A connection you made early on was with mythology, particularly the myth of Theseus. They have just cause but the nature of the conflict raises a lot of questions. I believe the majority of today’s audience would define that as grounds for revolution. The citizens of the districts have no basic human rights, are treated as slave labor, and are subjected to the Hunger Games annually. In The Hunger Games Trilogy, the districts rebel against their own government because of its corruption. It helps differentiate between what’s considered a necessary and an unnecessary war. SC: Just-war theory has evolved over thousands of years in an attempt to define what circumstances give you the moral right to wage war and what is acceptable behavior within that war and its aftermath. For the next series, I wanted a completely new world and a different angle into the just-war debate. In The Underland Chronicles, I’d examined the idea of an unjust war developing into a just war because of greed, xenophobia and longstanding hatreds. I knew I wanted to continue to explore writing about just-war theory for young audiences.

I had been grappling with another story that just couldn’t get any air under its wings. At the time, I was completing the fifth book in The Underland Chronicles and my brain was shifting to whatever the next project would be. Suzanne Collins: Yes, I was flipping through the channels one night between reality television programs and actual footage of the Iraq War, when the idea came to me. An excerpt from that interview, including potential spoilers, is below, condensed and edited for clarity and length.ĭavid Levithan: Let’s start at the origin moment for “The Hunger Games.” You were flipping channels one night. In a 10th anniversary edition of the book, which hits stores this month, David Levithan, a vice president and publisher at Scholastic Press, interviewed Collins. The books have spawned four record-breaking films and many Katniss Halloween costumes. The series has more than 100 million copies in print worldwide, and spent more than 260 consecutive weeks on The Times best-seller list. It is the first in a trilogy by the same name that includes “Catching Fire” (2009) and “Mockingjay” (2010).

“The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins, came out in 2008.

Catching fire collins