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Peeking out the window of the WHYY office, I saw a row of five trucks with “Peace is preserved not promised” displayed on LED signs on the sides of the vehicles. The signs showed what looked like a soldier in all-white armor toting a rifle in front of an orange rising sun.
Were the signs for something political? Radical new advertising for some branch of the military?
No.
The trucks driving and parking up and down Philly streets today are a part of new marketing for a new “Hunger Games” movie, a prequel based on Suzanne Collins’ latest novel, “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.” It is scheduled to release Nov. 20, 2026.
According to a driver of one of the trucks, no pop-up promotional event for the movie is planned. Earlier this week, massive posters and banners featuring the same images popped up in cities worldwide, including New York, London, Mexico City and Los Angeles.
“The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” is a prequel to the Jennifer Lawrence-led “Hunger Games” movies and follows a young Haymitch Abernathy during the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. In the original movies, released between 2012 and 2015, Woody Harrelson plays Abernathy; Joseph Zada will play a younger Abernathy in the upcoming film. Based on Suzanne Collins’ novels, the franchise is set in Panem, a dystopian version of the United States where children from 12 districts are forced to compete in a televised fight to the death.
The phrase “peace is preserved not promised,” reflects the views of the villainous “Capitol” government from “The Hunger Games.”
The last released movie in the franchise was “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” which premiered in 2023, and starred Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler. That film was set during the 10th Hunger Games, 64 years before the events of the original films.
The most recent Hunger Games book, “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” was released just 18 months ago, in March 2025. Filming for the movie began July 1, 2025, four months after the book was released.
