100 Days of Mockingjay - Your THG Story

 

Suzanne Collins created The Hunger Games from an idea born of late night channel surfing between real war coverage and reality television. Suzanne, the daughter of a career military man and Vietnam Veteran, has said that she wanted to write an age-appropriate war story for every age group. The Hunger Games is her war story for young adults. The trilogy's themes of poverty, socio-economic disparity, government corruption, propaganda, revolution, redemption, and the consequences of war don't make the trilogy a typical YA light read. But I think that's also why we love it so much.

The Hunger Games means many different things to many different people. For some, the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, is a strong and inspiring female role model, for some she motivates as a survivor of poverty and PTSD. She's complicated, imperfect, damaged and an incredibly compelling lead character.

Some people simply adore the love stories - Peeta and Katniss are the catalysts for countless Everlark fan fics. Everthorne, Odesta, any 'ship you sail in The Hunger Games certainly isn't all hearts and flowers and the romances in the books are tinted with sadness. Not a typical happy ending to be found anywhere in the trilogy, yet we relish them all the same. 

In Thailand, citizens have identified with The Hunger Games and used its three finger salute as a symbol to combat injustice. Odds In Our Favor uses the salute along with their #MyHungerGames initiative to highlight economic inequality in the world. 

We want to know what The Hunger Games means to YOU. Why do you love it? How has it inspired you? What brought you into this wild, wonderful fandom and how has it changed your life?

This week, share your story. You can write it in the comments below or share on our Facebook page. You can also snap a photo, or create an edit or gifset based on what The Hunger Games means to you and tag us on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr. Use the hashtag #MyTHGStory across social media so we can find you, and we'll share as many of YOUR THG stories as we can this week!

This idea was completely inspired by the lovely Everlarked & Always, a blog you definitely should be following on tumblr. Check out the eloquent #MyTHGStory submissions of Everlarked & Always followers here .

Be sure to enter the Your THG Story Giveaway in the widget below! The giveaway is open to international tributes and runs from today, August 12th until Tuesday, August 18th at 8:00pm EST.

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Jennifer Lawrence and 'Mockingjay Part 2' To Be Featured in EW's Fall Movie Preview

Entertainment Weekly's annual Fall Movie preview hits newsstands on Friday. The issue includes an exclusive interview with Jennifer Lawrence, plus inside intel on the season’s 75 biggest movies. Among them: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. Knowing EW, this might be just a 1/4 page blurb. But we'll keep you posted with the details as soon as the issue arrives!  

100 Days of Mockingjay

Celebrating The Hunger Games Fandom

The final countdown to the release of our last film in The Hunger Games franchise has begun. It’s 100 days until Mockingjay Part 2 opens in US theaters, and we want to spend every one of those days celebrating with you!

Today we’re kicking off a 100-day-long party just for tributes. We can’t let our last THG film go out quietly. We’re going to honor all aspects of our beloved franchise and the passionate people that have helped make it so successful - that’s you! We’ll be focusing on every dimension of The Hunger Games unique and fabulous fandom over the coming months, highlighting the wonderful things that you’ve created out of your love for The Hunger Games book trilogy and movie franchise.

A successful party is nothing without great guests, and YOU are our guests of honor. There will be many opportunities for you to share YOUR stories and creations with us. So get out on that virtual dance floor and show us what you’ve got.

And what’s a party without presents? We’ve got presents! We’ll be holding weekly contests with all sorts of fabulous loot that you can win. Plus a few surprises.

We’ll be using the hashtag #100DaysofMJ across twitter, instagram, facebook and tumblr.

Our first feature is all about YOUR THG Story. Find out more and enter our first giveaway here. 

Happy Birthday Suzanne Collins!

Happy Birthday to our queen, the wonderful Suzanne Collins! The Hunger Games trilogy has changed our lives, and we are inspired each and every day by the world she created in Panem. 

I don't write about adolescence. I write about war. For adolescents.

                                                                      - Suzanne Collins

Willow Shields and Amandla Stenberg at Teen Vogue's Back-To-School Dinner Party

Teen Vogue and Simon Malls got together to throw a dinner party in Los Angeles Wednesday night, fêting their annual Back-to-School Saturdays initiative. The Hunger Games stars Willow Shields and Amandla Stenberg reunited at the event, along with other young Hollywood stars like Kiernan Shipka, Bella Thorne and Bailee Madison.

Willow is one of the celebs heading to malls all across the country this month to fill you in on how to adapt runway style for the hallways. Pittsburg tributes can meet Willow this Saturday, August 8th from 1-4pm at the Mall at Robinson

Image from @willowshields on instagram

Both Willow and Amandla posted this pic to their instagrams. Prim and Rue feels, anyone? 

Jena Malone Speaks Candidly About Playing Johanna Mason at Tampa Bay Comic Con

Photo via @FreakyFl on twitter

Jena Malone made an appearance at Tampa Bay Comic con yesterday and she answered some questions about her role as Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games franchise. She spoke candidly about how difficult it was on her psyche to play the role. 

It was so much fun. The thing is, is that Johanna Mason, for me, was really debilitating. It would be a really hard role for me to take on again just because the amount of extreme mental illness that she's battling. You know, she's battling so much anger and post-partum depression (we think she meant PTSD here) and a lot of really extreme things and, yes, the physicality of the role was liberating. And it was beautiful to scare and intimidate. 

Has Johanna left anything with Jena Malone? Jena's answer was "Anger residue." Though the role was demanding emotionally, Malone says that she would have played Johanna "if she was only offered $15" for it. There's no part she'd rather play in The Hunger Games universe. If she had to play another character she'd choose Caesar Flickerman or Cinna. 

Jena went on to say that she hasn't seen the full cut of Mockingjay Part 2. Her favorite part of filming MJ2 was the bald cap. Jena would get "sweat bubbles" and one day one popped in the midst of a convo with Jennifer Lawrence. Who, incidentally, Jena confirms is really into snacks. 

Jena Malone as Johanna Mason by Tim Palen: Photographs From The Hunger Games

Jena's favorite aspect of The Hunger Games franchise has been getting to know the fan base. Which she showed by lovingly hugging a fan who began to cry while asking a question for a friend with cancer. 

Thanks so much to @FreakyFl for the live tweet coverage and images from the panel! 

Josh Hutcherson on The Possibility of More Hunger Games Films

Josh Hutcherson spoke with Huffington Post recently and (sort of) cleared the air about some comments he made to Conan O'Brien at Comic Con last month. Josh seemed to hint at the possibility of more The Hunger Games films on the special Comic Con edition of O'Brien's show. 

Josh now says of future films, "Yeah, I mean the truth is I don’t know anything. I would like there to be more because they’re really fun to make, and it’s a fun character, but... afraid that I'm not clear on that one," Hutcherson said. "If it does happen, at the same time it’s like, it has to be something that Suzanne [Collins] really believes in," he continued. "It has to be something that she creates naturally. It's not just trying to make more movies out of it."

Admittedly, we're relived at this. Suzanne involved = YES! for us. 

What would Josh want to see in further Hunger Games films?

The last book kind of jumps from them kind of having a final moment... and then it jumps to another point in the story, and there’s a gap there in the middle. I think that could be a start. So I don’t know what would happen exactly, but all I know is that their own country and developing nation with all kinds of turmoil and ups and downs, I feel like there’s a good story in there.

We could definitely get behind that idea! 

Elizabeth Banks on Mockingjay Part 2: "It's the most intense one of the four. It hits you in the gut."

Elizabeth Banks spoke a bit about Mockingjay Part 2 while on the press junket for Pitch Perfect 2. Somehow we missed this little gem druing the PP2 promo.

If you can get over the fact that the youtuber captioned the video Hunger Games 4 (C'mon you can do it. Roll your eyes and move on. It technically IS Hunger Games 4. Who cares. We're more mature than that. People outside the fandom make this mistake all the time. Get over it.) the video is worth watching. 

"It's the most intense one of the four. It hits you in the gut."