Quentin Tarantino has slammed the Hunger Games franchise as merely a rip-off of the Japanese cult classic Battle Royale.
The 62-year-old Pulp Fiction director has often mentioned Kinji Fukasaku’s action film from 2000 as one of his favorites of all time. The film was based on Koushun Takami’s 1999 novel of the same name.
The first Hunger Games novel, The Hunger Games, was published by author Suzanne Collins in 2008. It was adapted in 2012 as the film of the same name, launching a successful franchise. A sixth film in the series will be released next year.
Speaking in a new interview on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Tarantino said: “Battle Royale is based on a novel. I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn't sue Suzanne Collins for every f***ing thing she owns. They just ripped off the f***ing book!”
Both Battle Royale and The Hunger Games are set in dystopian societies where young people must fight to the death in televised competitions until only one survives.
The Kill Bill director went on to argue that literary critics had missed the similarities between the stories, saying: “Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale so the stupid book critics never called her on it. They talked about how it was the most original f***ing thing they’d ever read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, ‘What the f***? This is just Battle Royale except PG!’”
Collins has previously denied being inspired by Takami’s novel or Fukasaku’s film adaptation.
In an interview with The New York Times in 2011, the bestselling author said: “I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in. At that point, it was mentioned to me, and I asked my editor if I should read it. He said: ‘No, I don't want that world in your head. Just continue with what you’re doing.’”
The original four-part Hunger Games series ran from 2012 to 2015, grossing over $3.3 billion worldwide. In 2023, a prequel starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler, The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes, hit theaters, grossing over $300 million.
A sequel to that prequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, is set to be released on November 20, 2026.
The new film will focus on Haymitch Abernathy, mentor to the original film’s protagonist Katniss Everdeen, who was played by Jennifer Lawrence.
