Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping: key information
– Coming to theaters on November 20, 2026
– Fifth installment of the Hunger Games franchise
– Plot will follow Suzanne Collins’s novel of the same name
– No official trailer released yet
– Ralph Fiennes, Elle Fanning and Jesse Plemons all set to star
– Unclear whether more prequel novels will be written
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is coming on November 20, 2026. The newest movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s famed franchise will follow her latest novel, which arrived in bookstores in March.
And it shouldn’t be all that surprising that the movie is already on the way, since Lionsgate ordered it before the novel was even released. While 2025 marked the return of Suzanne Collins’s infamous franchise, it comes five years after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and ten years after the main timeline Hunger Games trilogy.
For the fifth installment, it’s time to travel back to the 50th Annual Games in Panem, also famously known as the Second Quarter Quell, where Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the trilogy) competed. Here’s everything we know so far about Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping from release date, to confirmed cast, plot, rumours and more.
Spoilers to follow for the four previous Hunger Games instalments.
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping: release date?
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will arrive in theaters on November 20, 2026. Yes, that may feel like a long way off, but considering Suzanne Collins’s novel was only released in March, it’s actually an incredibly fast turnaround. Much quicker than the four years between the first Hunger Games novel’s publication and the movie adaptation’s release.
The release date was officially announced in a teaser clip from Lionsgate (featured above) depicting the songbirds and snakes readying for another battle. And, at the end of the teaser, Woody Harrelson’s voice chillingly says: “I think these games are gonna be different.”
And it’s been confirmed that the cast and crew will be filming later this year, as revealed by director Frances Lawrence in an exclusive interview with Collider back in February: “We’ve sort of got a research phase of prep. After London, I’m going to go on a scout and then we start prepping in April, and we shoot this year.”
With the previous films in the Hunger Games franchise available to stream on Max in the US, and Netflix in the UK and Australia, we can definitely expect Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping to get a streaming release – although whether it will be on the same services is still not confirmed.
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping: has a trailer been released?
There’s no official Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping trailer just yet. Given the movie’s scheduled November 2026 release date, I imagine we won’t see one until nearer the time. When it does appear, I’ll be sure to update and share it here.
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping: confirmed cast
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping cast is already filling up with some big names taking on the younger versions of characters from the main franchise, as well as introducing new ones. Here’s who is confirmed so far:
- Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy
- Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove
- Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow
- Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket
- Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee
- Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman
- Maya Hawke as Wiress
- Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner
- Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier
- Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan
- Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow
- Molly McCann as Louella McCoy
- Iona Bell as Lou Lou
For Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, as a prequel, there’s a lot of roles from the main trilogy that will now be played by different actors entirely. Take Jesse Plemons as a young Plutarch Heavensbee, previously played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, or Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, previously played by Elizabeth Baths.
But, according to director Frances Lawrence, finding young Haymitch was a huge task, finding an actor to take on the role that Woody Harrelson so famously played. Lawrence told ComicBook: “It’s not somebody that just looks like him, or is going to study Woody Harrelson and just act like him. When Tom Blythe played Donald Sutherland, he wasn’t doing an impersonation. We had to find somebody that was believable that you could be like, ‘Oh, okay, I see how this guy over 70 years could turn into Donald.'” And that person is Australian actor, Joseph Zada.
Of course, not every cast member is a returning character from the previous Hunger Games novels. There’s numerous tributes joining for the 50th Hunger Games, as well as mentors to star in the prequel.
Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping: story synopsis and rumors
Full spoilers for previous Hunger Games movies and Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping to follow.
Set 24 years before The Hunger Games, Collins’s latest novel is, of course, the basis for the entire movie, much like all of her previous novels were.
For anyone who has already read the novel, you’ll know what happens. For anyone who hasn’t, we won’t spoil it.
What we can say is that Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping follows a young Haymitch Abernathy during his time competing in the 50th Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell.
It’s an infamous piece of The Hunger Games history as it saw two boys and two girls picked from each District to compete. Twice as many as any other games.
As per the book’s official synopsis: “He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.”
It’s also clear, from the confirmed cast list above, that there will be returning characters from the main Hunger Games timeline including President Snow, Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman.
Unlike the other movies in the Hunger Games franchise though, we already know that Haymitch is going to survive with Woody Harrelson has so fantastically demonstrating in the trilogy.
But, speaking to TheMovieReport.com at CinemaCon in April, director Francis Lawrence revealed there’s so much more to Haymitch’s story: “This is one of these books and stories where you get to see a character we all love, that’s one of the icons of these movies, and to see what they’ve gone through. And to see how it ties into, not just the original series, but also the last movie. So, it’s this great sort of puzzle piece for everything.”
And speaking to Scholastic, Collins revealed how she’s used this story to explore profound concepts: “With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.’
“The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
If you’re too eager to wait to find out more, then reading the novel is the perfect antidote. But, if you’re a ‘watch the movie before reading it’ kind of Hunger Games fan, then you’ll just have to sing Rue’s whistle over and over again until November 20, 2026.
Will there be more Hunger Games movies?
The answer to this question lies in the asking of another – is Suzanne Collins writing any more Hunger Games novels?
Unfortunately, we’re not sure. In an interview with Variety, Collins’ longtime editor and publisher David Levithan said: “As for the future… I genuinely have no idea.”
Fans have been eager for a Haymitch prequel story, but there’s other Hunger Games characters’ prequel tales, like Finnick Odair’s, that there’s still hope for.
Director Frances Lawrence himself told Entertainment Weekly before Sunrise on the Reaping’s release: “If Suzanne has another thematic idea that she feels fits into the world of Panem — whether that’s with new people [or] familiar characters [like] Finnick, Haymitch, whoever — I’d be really interested in looking at it and being a part of it.
“But I don’t have any pull of just going, ‘I would love to do Finnick’s games.’ He’s a great character, but what’s the thematic underpinnings that make it worth telling and relevant?”
When it comes to the main Hunger Games series though, Levithan did make one conclusion: “I believe the end of ‘Mockingjay‘ is the ending of the series.”
He also divulged that Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping has been in the works since 2020, but it was only announced to the public in 2024. So, if they are silently working away on another prequel and igniting the hopes of another movie adaptation, I doubt we’ll be hearing about it anytime soon.
For more movie-based coverage, check out our guides on Practical Magic 2, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Peaky Blinders.
Leave a comment