Congratulations “Hunger Games” Fans—You Manifested This Casting

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It’s time to travel back to Panem. Lionsgate is gearing up for another adaptation from Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games universe. This time, the studio has set its sights on Collins’s 2025 prequel novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, which follows a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as he fights for his life in the Second Quarter Quell. Lionsgate previously adapted Collins’s 2020 Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, in 2023. The film starred Tom Blyth as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, the first victor from District 12.

Ahead, we break down everything to know about the forthcoming Sunrise on the Reaping adaptation.

When will the movie release?

Lionsgate announced that the movie will officially head to theaters on November 20, 2026.

Who is in the cast?

Joseph Zada, a relatively unknown actor who has previously held roles in television series Invisible Boys and Total Control, will lead the film as Haymitch Abernathy. Zada will also star in another book adaptation, We Were Liars, which will drop on Prime Video later this year.

Zada is joined by Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl, Hocus Pocus 2), who will portray Haymitch’s girlfriend, Lenore Dove Bird. Deadline previously reported that Mckenna Grace(I, Tonya, The Handmaid’s Tale) has been cast as Maysilee Donner, another District 12 tribute in the Second Quarter Quell.

In May, Lionsgate confirmed that Elle Fanning will also make her debut into the Hunger Games universe. Fanning will play the younger version of Effie Trinket, the Capitol escort who was previously played by Elizabeth Banks in the original movie franchise. In Sunrise on the Reaping, Effie serves as Haymitch’s stylist.

Rounding out the rest of the cast is Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Maya Hawke as District 3 victor Wiress, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as District 3 victor Beetee, Lili Taylor as District 4 victor Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt, and Molly McCann as Louella.

Francis Lawrence—the director of Catching Fire, both Mockingjay films, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes—will return to direct Sunrise on the Reaping.

What is the prequel about?

Sunrise on the Reaping takes place 40 years after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games. Fans can expect some familiar characters to return to the screen, including Effie Trinket, Plutarch Heavensbee, President Snow, Caesar Flickerman, Mags, and Beetee.

Haymitch was reaped as a tribute in a special iteration of the Hunger Games, dubbed the Second Quarter Quell. Instead of districts reaping one boy and one girl, each district had to produce double the amount of tributes to fight in that year’s game—meaning more competition and, inevitably, more blood. As Haymitch prepares to fight for his life in the arena, he also contends with the possibility of losing his loved ones back home.

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