A Game-Changing Sci-Fi Movie Series Is Now Fully Available On Netflix
The Hunger Games series is now on Netflix.
Netflix is currently streaming all four of Jennifer Lawrence‘s hit dystopian science fiction films in the Hunger Games franchise. The films, which ran from 2012 to 2015 changed the landscape of young adult adaptations, with the series’ impact continuing to be felt in cinema today. With all four Hunger Games films on Netflix, be sure to set aside a day this week to revisit the epic adventures of Katniss Everdeen and her ragtag team of militant teens as they take on the oppressive forces of a corrupt government.
Before the Hunger Games films premiered and subsequently wound up on Netflix to stream, the franchise was a hit series of young adult novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The novels featured three installments titled 2008’s The Hunger Games, 2009’s Catching Fire, and 2010’s Mockingjay, which was split into two parts for the film adaptation, similar to the treatment of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The books were a near-instant hit, with multiple production companies reaching out to Collins hoping to produce her series as a trilogy of films before Lionsgate eventually acquired the rights.
The films star Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, a teenager who must compete in a series of bizarre and violent rituals for the entertainment of a wealthy elite ruling class. In the dystopian future presented within the series, the Capitol of the nation, which has been split into 12 districts, commands a teenage boy and a teenage girl from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, not unlike Netflix’s latest hit, Squid Game. The event is essentially a nationally televised gladiator match in which the selected teens battle to the death.
Much like the violent games presented in Squid Game, the Hunger Games serves as a critique of corporate greed and government overreach, as the protagonist must learn to work alongside their supposed opponents to dismantle the system that impoverishes its people. Obviously, the PG-13 Hunger Games films aren’t quite as bloody and brutal as the Korean show, given that the series is geared toward a younger audience, but the themes and tone are still very mature in their presentation.
The Hunger Games launched Jennifer Lawrence’s career into the stratosphere, allowing her to take leading roles in films such as American Hustle, Passengers, and the Netflix original Don’t Look Up. According to IMDb, there is currently a prequel film in development, titled The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, starring Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, and Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set to follow the tenth round of the Hunger Games, long before Katniss and her friends joined and liberated the nation from the oppressive and barbaric ritual.
Over the course of the four Hunger Games films fans were delighted to see excellent performances from Woody Harrelson, Natalie Dormer, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the upcoming star of Netflix’s The Witcher series, Liam Hemsworth. All four films are available to stream now, just in case you missed the enormous impact these films had on the box office nearly ten years ago.
