The characters of The Hunger Games and Star Wars occupy considerably different worlds, but an upcoming film – Red Rising – is in a prime position to combine some of the best elements of both franchises. Leaning on these particular aspects could potentially turn the project into a thrilling new space opera story, and one that could possibly bloom into a franchise of its own.
Published in 2014, Red Rising is a dystopian sci-fi novel written by Pierce Brown. Set on Mars sometime in the future, Red Rising follows the story of Darrow, a rebel looking to infiltrate his world’s ruling class in the hopes of exacting revenge and overthrowing his hated enemies. The book’s success paved the way for five sequels, with a sixth on the way as well.
After years of plans for a television adaptation, Red Rising is being developed as a movie at Paramount. The Hollywood Reporter reported on October 16 that Francis Lawrence is attached to direct, with Justin Rhodes writing the screenplay. In The Hunger Games, Lawrence followed Katniss from the arena to the assault on Snow’s Capitol. Darrow’s story, in contrast, will demand an even larger leap, with the first book’s classmates eventually commanding fleets against one another.
What Red Rising Is About
The underground resistance group known as the Sons of Ares show Darrow what his labor actually supports in Red Rising. Mars already has cities and gardens, while the Golds keep the Reds mining below by telling them the surface is uninhabitable. In Pierce Brown’s novel, Darrow has risked his life to win extra food for his community. Seeing the surface makes his pride in that work painful to reconsider. He thought he was building a future for his people, but he was supplying the people keeping them hungry.
A Carver named Mickey reconstructs Darrow’s body so he can impersonate a Gold and enter the Institute (via SciFiction). Admission requires surviving the Passage, where students are paired and ordered to kill one another. Darrow kills Julian, then befriends Julian’s brother, Cassius. Surviving means Darrow gets to know the brother Julian left behind. Cassius becomes his friend without knowing what happened, and every kindness gives Darrow another reason to dread telling him.
The Institute’s houses compete for territory through weapons, hunger, and enslavement. Darrow initially takes slaves like the other commanders, using methods he knows from growing up under them. He has escaped the mines only to be rewarded for treating people as his family was treated. When Darrow frees his prisoners, he gives up the power to order them into battle. Anyone who stays will have to believe he is worth fighting for.
Darrow enters the Institute wanting to punish the Golds, then builds an army by offering them freedom. Brown gives him people to fight for whom he once would have blamed for everything. Paramount has several books to follow Darrow’s rebellion, while other studios are deciding where to take their next sci-fi films.
Paramount’s Red Rising Is Coming At The Perfect Time
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Two major adaptations will reach stopping points before the end of 2026. Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping opens November 20, bringing the last of Suzanne Collins’ five published Panem novels to the screen. A month later, Denis Villeneuve will finish his Dune trilogy with Part Three. Collins could write another Panem novel, and a new director could adapt more of Herbert’s books. But neither series has announced its next theatrical installment.
With Red Rising, Lawrence would have several sequels’ worth of story already on the page. Brown has already written several books following Darrow beyond the Institute, so the director can approach the first film knowing which relationships and decisions will matter later. Paramount would still need that opening installment to succeed, but it would have somewhere specific to take things afterward.
Of course, knowing where a story could go does not get cameras rolling. Lucasfilm announced Taika Waititi’s Star Wars film in 2020, and he has now confirmed it is on hold. Starfighter has a May 2027 release date, but the years spent waiting for other announced films make it difficult to know what will follow (via StarWars).
There is room for a series whose next film follows what its protagonist did in the last one. Darrow’s victories create enemies and obligations that Brown carries into the sequels that follow. Paramount can build toward those consequences from the start, rather than finish one plot point and then have to decide whose story to tell next.
Red Rising Deserves To Be A Major Franchise
In Golden Son, Darrow and his friend Sevro launch themselves through space in powered armor to board an enemy warship. They have to survive reaching the vessel before they can fight anyone aboard it. At the Institute, they had to cross enemy territory on horseback. Now they have to cross the vacuum between ships, trusting their armor to keep them alive until they can break in.
The gala duel in Golden Son honestly just deserves a film of its own to build toward it. Cassius expects to defeat Darrow in front of the Gold families, avenging the brother Darrow killed. What he does not know is that Darrow has spent months learning from Lorn au Arcos, a swordsman whose reputation even these families respect. Brown lets Cassius enter the duel expecting revenge, then makes him fight a man whose training he knows nothing about. A film could let that confidence drain away as Darrow starts beating him in front of his family.
The uncomfortable part is whose side Darrow is fighting on. His patron, Nero au Augustus, is the governor who ordered his wife’s execution. Capturing a warship helps keep that man in power, even as Darrow needs its weapons for the rebellion. The film could make boarding the ship exhilarating without letting the victory pass for the Reds’ liberation.
Stopping after Red Rising would leave Darrow serving the man who ordered Eo’s death. The sequels let him turn that access into a rebellion, with former classmates commanding the ships he must capture or persuade to join him.
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