If Suzanne Collins continues her tradition of threes, a final Hunger Games prequel told from Finnick Odair’s perspective would be a natural, essential conclusion. With The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Snow) and Sunrise on the Reaping (Haymitch), we’ve explored the roots of tyranny—Snow’s origin revealing how power corrupts through ambition and choice, and Sunrise showing how the Capitol enforces control through implicit submission. Though Haymitch won the second Quarter Quell in spectacular fashion, the Capitol censored his acts of rebellion, editing them from public view. Even readers, like the Capitol audience, once believed his Games were unremarkable. But rebellion existed long before Katniss. A Finnick novel could expand that truth. The youngest victor in history at just 14, Finnick was sold to Capitol elites, stripped of his family, and left with only Mags and Annie. Coming from a Career district, he likely trusted the Capitol at first—until survival taught him otherwise. His story would expose the grooming, commodification, and trauma inflicted on children in the name of entertainment—core themes rooted in Collins’s background in children’s media. Of all the victors, Finnick performs best—charming, smiling, and broken. His story would complete a trilogy not just of war, but of survival—and what it costs.
