Published Jul 4, 2026, 12:04 PM EDT
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We know the odds are in the favor of our protagonist this time around, but it doesn’t mean the next Hunger Games movie is going to get any easier to watch. Sunrise on the Reaping, the most anticipated sci-fi of the year, is heading for screens soon, and we’ve just been given a special look at the person we’ll be following to the ends of the cornucopia.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is making a very convincing case for fans to get excited about the second Quarter Quell — which they already know the outcome of — but that just goes to show the power of good storytelling. Today, Lionsgate has unleashed a new featurette with young Haymitch front and center, offering another look at Joseph Zada as the young tribute before he becomes the mentor first played by Woody Harrelson. The new footage shows us a sneak peek at how Haymitch’s hard and bitter exterior was formed in the heart of the Games.
Sunrise on the Reaping takes place 24 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteers for Prim and follows Haymitch as he is selected for the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. This time, the Capitol doubles the number of tributes, turning an already horrific annual spectacle into an even more merciless bloodbath.
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
The featurette also shows off the faces we’ll come to know and, no doubt, fear for in the Quarter Quell, played by a new generation of actors. Zada (We Were Liars) leads the cast as Haymitch, with Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl) as Lenore Dove Baird and Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) as Maysilee Donner. Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog) plays a younger Plutarch Heavensbee, while Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Waves) takes on Beetee, and Maya Hawke (Stranger Things) plays Wiress.
The returning Capitol players include Ralph Fiennes (Conclave) as President Coriolanus Snow, Elle Fanning (A Complete Unknown) as Effie Trinket, Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) as Caesar Flickerman, Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction) as Drusilla Sickle, and Billy Porter (Pose) as Magno Stift. The cast also includes Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, and Percy Daggs IV as Ampert Latier. Francis Lawrence returns as director, having overseen the franchise from Catching Fire onwards.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in theatres on November 20, 2026.