We’ve had Hunger Games, Maze Runners, Givers, Divergents, and New Mutants (well, eventually), but what about something that’s kinda like a combination of all of them? The Darkest Minds, based on Alexandra Bracken’s wildly popular young adult book series, is coming to the big screen, and Amandla Stenberg, whom you may know as Rue from The Hunger Games, is finally getting a teen dystopia of their* own.

The Darkest Minds takes place in a future where a mysterious disease has killed off most of the world’s children, and those who are left begin to develop frightening abilities, abilities scary enough to convince their parents to send them to government detainment facilities for the rest of their young lives. When our hero Ruby (Stenberg) escapes from one with a group of fellow teens, Ruby realizes that they’re going to have to fight back against a government that want to control them.

Bracken’s series includes four books, so if this movie is successful, we might have the next Hunger Games on our hands. Here’s the official synopsis:

When teens mysteriously develop powerful new abilities, they are declared a threat by the government and detained. Sixteen-year-old Ruby, one of the most powerful young people anyone has encountered, escapes her camp and joins a group of runaway teens seeking safe haven. Soon this newfound family realizes that, in a world in which the adults in power have betrayed them, running is not enough and they must wage a resistance, using their collective power to take back control of their future.

The Darkest Minds is directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, also stars Mandy Moore and Gwendoline Christie. It hits theaters August 3.


*Amandla Stenberg identifies as nonbinary and uses they and them pronouns.

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