The Hunger Games, the young-adult dystopian sensation that already broke records with its first theatrical installment, has now set the release dates for its final film adaptation to complete the series. Yes, that’s right – dates. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins’ finale of the Hunger Games trilogy, will be divided into two separate films, following suit of many successful adapted series such as Twilight and Harry Potter. Therefore, the final final film will be in the very distant future.

And the schedule release dates are reminiscent of another YA sensation that’s coming to a close. How do the Twilight and The Hunger Games series compare?

Catching Fire, the second book of The Hunger Games, has already been scheduled to open on November 22, 2013. As for the third book, Mockingjay, Part 1 is scheduled for November 21, 2014, and Part 2 is scheduled for November 20, 2015. So sit tight, because it will be over three years until your Katniss-Peeta-Gale obsession is ultimately sated.

This November opening weekend is the same weekend in which the Twilight franchise has marked its territory for four years now. With their billion-dollar ride shutting down this year, it looks as if film execs are proclaiming this weekend reserved for outrageously popular young-adult film adaptations as the Hunger Games installments are picking up where Twilight left off.

The similarities between both series have been debated since The Hunger Games’ rise in popularity, but how do they really compare? Both worlds contain heroines, love triangles, life-threatening predicaments and the ladies experiencing personal struggles that define their true self at a very taxing time in life. But from what I can gather (I have not read Hunger Games, but I have read the majority of Twilight) the similarities end there.

Do you feel like these two leading ladies — Katniss and Bella — have much in common? Truth be told, I couldn’t finish the Twilight saga because I found Bella insufferable. Her fragility in her deadly relationship was one thing, but her hopeless sense of self-worth and self-deprecation rendered her character annoying as well. I understand that she’s an awkward teenager, but I was grasping for development and still could not find an aspect of her character to empathize with. Again, I realize her character is that of a regular, angsty adolescent, but in a series that has captivated many impressionable young girls, it’s a concept that can leave you feeling unempowered.

I have not read The Hunger Games, so my interpretation is based on the first film. Katniss, converse to Bella, controls her fate, in the near fatal situation that she has been dealt. And she is able to conquer and manipulate the unforgiving world she is thrown into very well. There are glints of romance, but her drive to survive is unimpeded by them and she manages to implement the amorous concept in her favor.

How do you feel about both series and how do they compare?

[via Entertainment Weekly]
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