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Who’s hungry? Lionsgate has dropped a flowery first trailer for the next installment in the Hunger Games film franchise, Sunrise on the Reaping — a full year before it’s set to release in theaters. Based on Suzanne Collins’s novel of the same name, the movie will pick up 40 years after the events of the 2023 prequel film The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and flesh out the traumatic backstory of Haymitch Abernathy, eventual mentor to Katniss Everdeen. Let the games promo begin.
What happens in the trailer?
Naturally, the sun is rising on a reaping ceremony — this time, for the 50th Hunger Games. We get our first look at Joseph Zada as a young Haymitch, who listens with the rest of District 12 as Drusilla Sickle (a ginger Glenn Close) explains a twist to this year’s deadly games: “Twice the number of tributes, twice the glory. It’s time for the second Quarter Quell.”
After quick glimpses of the dozens of tributes Haymitch will be competing against — including Percy Daggs IV as the upsettingly young Ampert — we’re introduced to Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove, Haymitch’s girlfriend. She’s the one who gives him the flint striker that’s on the cover of the Sunrise on the Reaping novel. (It has a bird on one end and a serpent on the other … a songbird and a snake, if you will.) Unfortunately, shots of Haymitch screaming on the ground and being held back in front of a burning house suggest that he won’t always be as happy and peaceful as he looks with her.
Younger versions of several familiar Capitol characters are also involved, including Elle Fanning as early-career stylist Effie Trinket and Ralph Fiennes as a middle-age, post-Songbirds President Snow. Plus, as future Head Gamemaker and current reaping-ceremony cameraman Plutarch Heavensbee, Jesse Plemons is in serious competition with Glenn Close for the trailer’s most memorable fuck-ass bob.
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Who else is in the cast?
The full Sunrise on the Reaping cast also includes Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lili Taylor as Mags, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, and Billy Porter as Magno. McKenna Grace and Ben Wang will join Zada’s Haymitch as fellow District 12 tributes Maysilee Donner and Wyatt Callow, respectively.
What is Sunrise on the Reaping about?
The supersize 50th-anniversary edition of the deadly Hunger Games, also known as the second Quarter Quell, has 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy competing as one of 48 tributes. While we obviously know that he survives, given that he becomes a mentor to District 12 tributes, this is our chance to see more of what made him so cynical and haunted by the games. (If you want a more comprehensive and spoiler-filled refresher, you can consult our handy roundup of everything we learned from the book.)
Why am I getting Midsommar vibes?
Sunrise on the Reaping shows the tributes by a cornucopia surrounded by flowers and lush greenery. Now, we don’t actually know if director Francis Lawrence — who has directed every film in the Hunger Games franchise since Catching Fire — took any inspiration from the 2019 Ari Aster film that made flower crowns scary. A deadly, blooming aesthetic is true to Sunrise on the Reaping’s source material. In the book, the violence of the 50th Hunger Games played out in an arena with a beautiful meadow of flowers. The first poster for the film also leans into this aesthetic:
Who’s in the crew?
Lawrence will direct a script by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Billy Ray, whose credits include the first Hunger Games movie and Nicole Kidman’s “Heartbreak feels good in a place like this” AMC ad. Longtime Hunger Games producer Nina Jacobson will return to produce alongside Brad Simpson.
When is the release date?
This rollout started fairly early, so there’s still some time before the Hunger Games prequel arrives in theaters. We’ll reap the rewards of this long wait when Sunrise on the Reaping drops on November 20, 2026.
