The world of Panem never really loosens its grip. More than a decade after Lionsgate turned “The Hunger Games” into a global box-office force, the studio is circling back to one of the franchise’s most consequential chapters: the Second Quarter Quell. The first trailer for “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” has arrived, setting the stage for the rise—and ruination—of young Haymitch Abernathy, long before he became the cynical mentor fans met in the original films.
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Adapted from Suzanne Collins’ 2023 novel, the prequel is directed by returning filmmaker Francis Lawrence, who has shepherded the series since “Catching Fire.” But unlike the spectacle-driven revolution arcs of the previous films, “Sunrise on the Reaping” is rooted in a far more personal, brutal crucible: the 50th Hunger Games, an event so savage it defined Haymitch’s entire worldview. That emotional and political origin point now becomes the franchise’s next centerpiece.
Haymitch is played here by newcomer Joseph Zada, stepping into a role made iconic in later decades by Woody Harrelson. Zada leads a cast that includes Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, and Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman. These roles represent characters already known to longtime readers and viewers, grounding the prequel distinctly within established canon.
The trailer positions “Sunrise on the Reaping” as a return to rawer thematic territory—closer in spirit to the series’ earliest explorations of exploitation, propaganda, and manufactured violence as entertainment. But this time, the focus shifts to a single tribute whose survival taught him to distrust systems, alliances, and narratives long before Katniss Everdeen ever volunteered.
Following the commercial resurgence of the franchise with “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” in 2023, Lionsgate clearly sees “Sunrise on the Reaping” as the next anchor in the saga’s expanding timeline. With Collins’ novel as its spine and Lawrence again shaping the world, the prequel extends the franchise’s mythology in a direction that is both inevitable and long overdue.
“The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” opens in theaters on November 20, 2026.
