6 Nostalgic YA Movies To Revisit With ‘The Hunger Games’ Comeback

Leading up to Sunrise on the Reaping, the best movie to revisit is that first The Hunger Games movie. I feel so incredibly attached to The Hunger Games because I remember reading the first book in school and going to see it in theaters as a field trip. Even now, I’m still floored by how accurate it is as an adaptation and how timely its content remains—14 years later. Now, when I rewatch it, I can appreciate Gary Ross’s direction and see how it differentiates between Francis Lawrence’s takes on the same world of the Districts and the Capitol that the first movie built. 

I will always be on the hill that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) is one of the best movies, let alone the standout in the franchise. When the franchise made changes, like adding more Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2 (2015), it just made the movies better. The Hunger Games really strikes gold from the beginning with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), and Gale (Liam Hemsworth). It may not seem like it, but with its dedication to the source material, The Hunger Games launched a new wave of YA adaptations.

Divergent, based on Veronica Roth’s book of the same name, is one of the first movies to follow The Hunger Games. It came at a time when YA book-to-screen adaptations were veering away from more romantic main plots and leaning heavily into dystopian landscapes. Divergent balanced both, with the best thing being Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four’s (Theo James) romance. Woodley and James’s chemistry is practically unmatched. I’m pretty sure it rewired my brain chemistry. They’ve become the gold standard I compare new adaptations to now. 

Luckily, Divergent stands on its own as an accurate book-to-screen adaptation. The world-building is steady, the stakes are believable, and the characters' arcs remain intact. That becomes less true as Insurgent (2015) and Allegiant (2016) are released. Really, this franchise never got to end with its fourth movie, Ascendant (2017), because it never came out after all the pushback against Allegiant. As frustrated as I was at first, I’m glad that I never got to see it because I don’t think I’ll ever be over Roth killing Tris off in Allegiant, and I don’t want to watch that in a movie. In my mind, Tris and Four are happy, thriving, and most importantly, alive.

The Maze Runner couldn’t find a better and more talented person to lead this franchise than Dylan O’Brien during the peak of Teen Wolf (2011). It’s wild that O’Brien was playing Thomas in this movie at the same time that he was turning in the game-changing performance of Void Stiles on the small screen. The Maze Runner also catches the YA audience up with Kaya Scodelario after the success of Skins (2007). So, it really felt like a cast built for the audience.

Also, as someone who read James Dashner’s books before every movie, I think they’re incredibly accurate. It’s also one of the book-to-screen adaptations where romance takes a backseat, if a seat at all, for a dystopian mystery of survival. The Maze Runner and its sequels—Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)—are more about friendship. Relatedly, if I start writing about Thomas (O’Brien) and Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), I won’t ever stop. Their friendship is the main love story to me.

I have such sensory memories of seeing this movie for the first time because I was so invested in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments books. I remember being locked into the press tour in a way that I hadn’t really experienced since Twilight (2009). I was just so excited to see these characters on the big screen that I didn’t even realize that The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones wasn’t more broadly loved by long-time fans of the books or casual viewers.

As I rewatch it now, I do realize that the intricacies of the universe’s world aren’t really served well by a movie. It needs more space and time to get into all of the details and all the supporting characters, which is why Shadowhunters (2016) has more success with a multi-season medium. I still find The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones incredibly enjoyable, even when it's not always easily watchable because of the mythology. I think people should watch it just for Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins’s chemistry as Jace and Clary—you won’t regret it.

Beautiful Creatures, based on Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s book of the same name, is one of the few YA adaptations that slipped past me during the 2010s burst that I grew up during. I’d even seen Vampire Academy (2014) before I dove into Richelle Mead’s books, which was an experience. When I finally watched it recently, I was struck by the caliber of the cast: Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons—just to name a few. Then again, these YA adaptations have such mass appeal that they often pull in massive talents while launching careers. 

Relatedly, Alden Ehrenreich, who is also excellent in the criminally underrated Solo: A Star Wars Story (2016), is fantastic as Ethan Wate, opposite Alice Englert as Lena Duchannes. As it focuses on Ethan and Alice being torn about in a magical world, Beautiful Creatures stands out among the dystopian stories as a romantasy adaptation. Honestly, the biggest thing working against this movie, as someone who has yet to read the book, is the runtime. So, if you’re going to revisit this one—or check it out for the first time, like me—buckle up for more than 2 hours. 

I could write about Twilight and how it deserves to be taken more seriously forever. I believe that this movie is a blueprint in a lot of ways that some people may be more hesitant to admit. I don’t know that half of these YA adaptations—often targeted to young women—would exist without the vast success of The Twilight Saga. This saga is a blockbuster success from start to finish, proving people who doubted the genre’s mass appeal wrong. It spans The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), and its two-part finale: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 (2011) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2 (2012). 

It takes the lead from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). While the Harry Potter series may have established the trend, Twilight popularized splitting the final book adaptation into two parts. It also showed that supernatural romances could be popular and financially successful enough to launch franchises. For that, I’m incredibly grateful because The Vampire Diaries (2009) came out the year after and became one of my favorite shows. Basically, I wouldn’t be who I am without Twilight. Regardless, all of these YA adaptations have left a lasting impression on popular culture.