"The Hunger Games" hit theaters on March 23, 2012, quickly replacing "Twilight" in Hollywood's attraction to book adaptations. Based on the best-selling novel by Suzanne Collins, the Gary Ross-directed film exposed viewers to a dystopian post-apocalyptic future in which a boy and a girl are yearly chosen as "tributes" from each of the country's 12 Districts and made to participate in televised combat to the death.
Lawrence as the ferocious Katniss Everdeen, along with her co-stars and on-screen lovers Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth, became a mega-star after starring in franchises. The
movies were highly received, and the way they adapted the original material gained critical acclaim. However, like every book-to-movie adaptation, certain details don't make it to the big screen.
Below is a list of 20 storylines from "The Hunger Games", "Catching Fire", and "Mockingjay" which were omitted from the movie franchises. Keep reading if you want to return to Panem and think back fondly or amusingly about the things that might have been on the big screen.
#1 Peeta has his leg amputated following the events in the first games, and he has a prosthetic leg for the rest of the series.
Source: Lionsgate
#2 Katniss is rendered deaf in one ear after she blows up the Careers' supplies, and she doesn't regain any hearing on her left side until afterward when the Capitol gives her a hearing aid.
Source: Lionsgate
"The disability erasure still gets me. Peeta has his leg amputated following the events in the first games, and he has a prosthetic leg for the rest of the series. This is completely ignored. Katniss is rendered deaf in one ear after she blows up the Careers' supplies, and she doesn't regain any hearing on her left side until afterward when the Capitol gives her a hearing aid. Both of these points are completely ignored in the movies, and as a disabled person, it's frustrating to know we had two canonically disabled protagonists in the books, and they still led a rebellion and did everything their abled counterparts did. Erasing that for the movies didn't surprise me, but it did sting."—
ghcstxbcy#3 Haymitch's backstory
Source: Lionsgate
"I wish they gave us more of Haymitch's backstory. We learned about his backstory in Catching Fire, but the movie doesn't show it. In my opinion, it was very important. We learned more about him, such as how he survived the quarter quell and why afterward, he became so traumatized that he became an alcoholic."—
xy8lu#4 The importance of Katniss's father, who taught her to hunt, sang, handed her the bow, and other things
Source: Lionsgate
"The only real 'mention' of Katniss's dad is the photo seen in every movie and her telling her mom she 'can’t lose it like she did when Dad died' while they’re saying their goodbyes in the first movie. He taught Katniss everything about survival and is the reason she can even get through the games. He also taught her the 'Hanging Tree' song, which is a major plot device."—
lessahd#5 Katniss' thought-provoking interior monologue in the scene where she's at a party and she sees people throwing food
Source: Lionsgate
"Some of the more damning social commentary around the Capitol. For example, there was this one poignant scene where Katniss is at a party and she sees people throwing up food just to go back for more. She has this thought-provoking inner monologue about how backward it is that people strive to be skinny there, when in her world, everyone is starving, and not being thin is a sign of success. I think the movie missed out on a lot of that type of commentary, which is what made the books such a relevant critique of our world as it is now."—
chicha3maddy#6 Katniss's fake pregnancy reflects comments about how people only care about her when she's pregnant.
Source: Lionsgate
"Obviously the movie adaptation of Catching Fire has the scene when Peeta lies and says that Katniss is pregnant, but in the book, it's a bigger plotline. Throughout the actual Games, Katniss has to pretend to be pregnant to keep up the lie and there are some great Johanna moments because of it. It's also another brilliant detail that adds to the rebellion as people now worried about Katniss in the Games again because she's pregnant — you know, not because it's literally an inhumane tradition. It's just one of the many great social commentary storylines from Suzanne Collins that she tucks within this YA dystopian series. She's a brilliant writer." —
noradominick#7 Katniss' deep emotional relationship with Cinna's three assistants Venia, Flavius, and Octavia
Source: Lionsgate
"Katniss's relationship with her entire style team, not just Cinna! In the books, she formed a deep emotional attachment with all three of Cinna's assistants, who each have their own personality and story. In the movies, they are barely featured other than a snide comment here or there, and Katniss has essentially no relationship with them."—
strangerthanitseems#8 Katniss discovers that District 13 is holding her entire styling team
Source: Lionsgate
"They definitely should have included when Katniss found her prep team chained up and tortured in District 13. She was horrified by the way they were treated, all because they simply didn’t know any better. All they knew was the ways of the Capitol. It was one of the many things that made her start to question if there was a difference between District 13 and the Capitol!"—
loulou2182#9 Katniss discovers that the girl she saw in the woods is now an Avox and she serves Katniss
Source: Lionsgate
"In the first book, Gale and Katniss witness a girl and her brother trying to escape District 12 in the woods. They get caught by a hovercraft. The boy gets stabbed and the girl is lifted. Katniss and Gale could have saved her, but they didn’t and the girl saw them. Fast forward to when Katniss gets to the Capitol after the Reaping, she finds out that the girl she saw in the woods is now an Avox and she serves Katniss. This was such an important story to me. I was devastated when it wasn’t in the movie."—
madamemalfoy#10 Avox storylines and how their treatment influenced Katniss's motivation and her contempt for the Capitol
Source: Lionsgate
"I wish they had included the Avox storyline overall! It added so much depth, not just to the world of Panem, but to Katniss and her motivations. Her experience with the redheaded Avox her first time in the capitol was one of Katniss’s first glimpses at the Capitol's cruelty."—
strangerthanitseems#11 Details of Katniss's mental health after she killed President Coin
Source: Lionsgate
"Her mental health in the third book and what happened after she killed Coin and Sae helping her when she went back to 12 was huge, and just glossed over in the movies."—
amandakins#12 The deep relationship between Finnick and Katniss
Source: Lionsgate
"I missed the depth of Finnick and Katniss’s relationship from the books. They lean on each other when Peeta and Annie are held in the Capitol and this doesn’t come across as much in the films."—
hannahlrogers1993#13 After being hospitalized in District 13 after being taken prisoner in the Capitol, Johanna develops a morphine addiction
Source: Lionsgate
"She used to take it from Katniss."—
rachelg44ec195c4#14 Cato was mercilessly killed by Katniss after he hadn't actually died for hours
Source: Lionsgate
"Towards the end of the first book, Cato was essentially mercy killed by Katniss after he literally doesn't die for hours and hours. Maybe this was too harsh for a teen movie — she kills him pretty soon after he falls in the film — but it was a big moment in the book. He had been a powerful bully the whole time and at that moment he was a kid, bound to the same system of servitude as the protagonists, evoking pity from the reader and Katniss."—
sdasda#15 The beginning of the rebellion in District 11 after Rue's death
Source: Lionsgate
"I didn't mind that in the movie we actually see the beginning of the rebellion in District 11 after Rue's death, however, I would've loved to have seen this little touch. It would've allowed Katniss to actually KNOW while in the Games that District 11 saw what she did for Rue and supported her."—
laurengarafano#16 Katniss tricks Peeta with sleeping syrup to make him unconscious
Source: Lionsgate
"I wish the part where Katniss tricks Peeta with the sleeping syrup in the first book made it in."—
hovanmolly#17 After Clove passed away, Cato appeared and begged her to survive
Source: Lionsgate
"I was sad they didn’t include Cato coming to Clove when she was dying and begging for her to stay with him. It helped Katniss see that the Careers were also human and just as much a part of the games as she and Peeta were."—
jeroy#18 President Coin and the rebels are using Finnick more for propaganda spots
Source: Lionsgate
"Finnick was used for propo in Mockingjay. He talked about some tributes and Mags as a way to boost the rebels and remind them why they were fighting in the first place."—
kryan42344#19 Appalachian accent of the people of District 12
Source: Lionsgate
"The people of District 12 should have had an Appalachian accent. In the books, it’s discussed that 12 is in a place once called the Appalachian Mountains. The Capitol is surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. It’s safe to assume that the west coast elite fled there, hence why people from the Capitol are described as always talking like they’re asking a question. What accent do we know resembles this? The valley girl accent. The Capitol is meant to represent the elite of today, they dress weird and act weird and talk weird. The disconnect of classes would’ve been so much more obvious if they had included the varying accents of Panem, it would be easier to understand why Katniss makes fun of their accent when we first meet her."—
mirianflsnow#20 Katniss and Peeta receive a unique picnic basket stocked with food
Source: Lionsgate
"I really missed this small moment."—
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