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The Most Beloved Sci-Fi Franchise of the Decade Becomes a Hulu Sleeper Hit Ahead of Upcoming Prequel

By Sofia Martinez · Culture & Entertainment Editor

April 21, 2026· 10 min read

Erielle Sudario

Published Apr 21, 2026, 7:15 PM EDT

Erielle Sudario is a Collider News and Feature Author from Australia and has worked in the journalism industry since 2018. She has a passion for entertainment and pop culture news and has interviewed YouTubers, voice actors, film directors, and musicians throughout her career. When she's not writing, you can see Erielle building keyboards, reading a good book, playing video games, and creating content on social media.

The 2010s have been a huge year for a new genre: YA Dystopias. Following the end of the Harry Potter_ and Twilight film franchises, young audiences were looking for a new genre to invest in, and Hollywood delivered by adapting a book that would eventually become a box-office phenomenon, with expansions released years later.

The Hunger Games is a dystopian sci-fi franchise based on Suzanne Collins' books of the same name. The original trilogy follows Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), a tribute from District 12, who volunteers to protect her sister from entering The Hunger Games, a televised battle to the death between tributes from Panem's 12 districts. Her actions in the first book inspired the Districts to rebel against the Capitol and end the games for good. And as the fifth book, which is also the second prequel story, is about to enter theaters, fans have been revisiting where it all began as the countdown to the 50th Hunger Games begins.

On Hulu, The Hunger Games films have dominated the streaming charts, with the first film at #1 on Hulu's Top 10 Movies. Meanwhile, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire sits at #3, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at #4, Mockingjay - Part 1 at #7, and Mockingjay - Part 2 at #9. In Hulu's Overall charts, the first two films made the Top 10, with The Hunger Games at #4 and Catching Fire at #10. Since the film adaptations began in 2012, The Hunger Games has been highly praised by fans and critics alike and has grossed over $3.3 billion worldwide. Years after the end of the trilogy adaptation, Collins has been releasing prequel novels based on games set before Katniss Everdeen's time in the area, showcasing what Panem was like before Katniss' historic time in the games.

COLLIDER Collider · Quiz

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero_ Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides 🖖Capt. Kirk ✊Princess Leia 🔦Ellen Ripley 🔥Max Rockatansky

FIND YOUR HERO →

QUESTION 1 / 8LEADERSHIP

01 How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.

AI absorb everything — every variable, every pattern — and move only when I know the path forward. BI read the room, make the call, and own the consequences. Hesitation costs more than mistakes. CI rally people. A cause needs a voice, and I refuse to let fear be louder than conviction. DI assess the threat, establish what needs doing, and get it done without waiting for permission. EI don't lead. I act. Others can follow or not — I'm already moving.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 2 / 8STRENGTH

02 What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.

APrescience — the ability to see further ahead than anyone else and plan accordingly. BImprovisation — I'm at my best when the plan falls apart and I have to invent a new one. CConviction — I know what I'm fighting for, and that certainty doesn't waver under fire. DComposure — I stay functional when everyone around me is falling apart. Panic is a luxury. EEndurance — I outlast things. I take the hit and keep moving long after others have stopped.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 3 / 8MOTIVATION

03 What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.

AThe survival and dignity of my people — even if I have to become something frightening to ensure it. BThe safety of my crew — every single one of them. No one gets left behind. CFreedom — for my people, for every world still crushed under the weight of an empire. DThe truth — what actually happened, what's actually out there, whether anyone believes me or not. EThe one person — or the one memory — that still makes any of this worth surviving for.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 4 / 8PEOPLE

04 How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.

AWith intensity and distance — I care deeply, but the weight I carry makes closeness complicated. BWith warmth and irreverence — I take the mission seriously, not myself. CWith directness and trust — I say what I mean, and I expect the people I work with to rise to it. DWith professional care but clear limits — I'll protect you, but I won't pretend we're family. EWith wariness that slowly becomes loyalty — I don't trust easily, but when I do, it holds.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 5 / 8THREAT

05 You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything.

APrepare in silence. If they won't listen, I'll be ready when they finally have to. BKeep pushing until someone listens — and if no one does, handle it myself. CBuild the case, find the allies, and make the threat impossible to ignore. DDocument everything. The truth matters even if no one believes it yet. EStop trying to convince anyone. Survive it. That's the only argument that counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 6 / 8COST

06 What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again.

AMy innocence — I've seen what I'm capable of, and I can't unsee it. BPeople I loved — the command chair has a view, but it's a lonely one. CA normal life — I gave up everything ordinary the moment I chose the cause. DMy sense of safety — I know exactly what's out there now, and I can't pretend otherwise. EAlmost everything — and I'm still not sure what I'm carrying it all for. But I keep going.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 7 / 8RULES

07 How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours?

AI understand them deeply — and I know exactly which ones must be broken, and why. BI respect the spirit of them and bend the letter when the situation demands it. CThe system is the problem. I'm not here to work within it — I'm here to dismantle it. DI follow protocol until protocol stops being useful. Then I make the call myself. EThe rules collapsed a long time ago. What's left is instinct, and mine are reliable.

NEXT QUESTION →

QUESTION 8 / 8PURPOSE

08 When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.

ADestiny — or something that feels so much like it that the difference no longer matters. BThe people on my ship — their faces, their trust, the fact that they're counting on me. CThe belief that what we're fighting for is worth every sacrifice, including this one. DSheer refusal to let it win — whatever it is. I don't stop. That's just who I am. EI'm not sure anymore. But the road is still there, and I'm still on it.

REVEAL MY HERO →

Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is… Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

Arrakis · Dune

Paul Atreides You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you.

USS Enterprise · Star Trek

Captain Kirk You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it.
Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.

The Rebellion · Star Wars

Princess Leia You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of.

You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.

The Nostromo · Alien

Ellen Ripley You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there.
When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.

The Wasteland · Mad Max

Max Rockatansky You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

What's 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' About?

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on The Reaping is a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, set 24 years before Katniss volunteers as a tribute during the 50th Games, which is the 2nd Quarter Quell. During the Quarter Quell, the Capitol adds a new rule exclusive to these games: the number of tributes doubles from two to four; hence, 48 kids are fighting for their lives to become victors. One of the tributes is Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada), who in the main trilogy was Katniss and Peeta's (Josh Hutcherson) mentor (played by Woody Harrelson), but in the prequel was 16 years old._ Sunrise on the Reaping _will feature many familiar names from the franchise, like previous Hunger Games victors who made their debut in Catching Fire, as well as the return of President Snow, now played by Ralph Fiennes.

__ Subscribe for deeper Hunger Games franchise coverage

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The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping_ enters theaters on November 20, 2026. In the meantime, you can stream The Hunger Games and its sequels on Hulu. Follow Collider for more updates.