Panem was always going to come back around to Haymitch Abernathy, but Lionsgate’s first official teaser for “The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping” finally put some flesh on that long-teased mythology. Framed as a franchise-spanning look back before pivoting into new material, the footage unveiled Joseph Zada as young Haymitch, along with first looks at Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Maya Hawke as Wiress, and Ralph Fiennes as a younger Coriolanus Snow.
Set 24 years before the events of the original “Hunger Games” film, the prequel began on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games — the Second Quarter Quell — and centered on Haymitch as Panem once again turned its ritual cruelty into a national spectacle. That setup has loomed over the series for years, and the teaser appeared to lean right into the franchise’s mix of legacy characters, political rot, and brutal pageantry.
Francis Lawrence directed from a screenplay by Billy Ray, based on Suzanne Collins’s novel. Alongside Zada, the ensemble also includes Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak, and Kelvin Harrison Jr., as the series once again threads new faces through the DNA of characters and institutions that already haunted Panem long before Katniss ever volunteered.
The film opens on November 20, 2026. Watch the trailer below.
