The New Hunger Games Film Shows How Haymitch Survived the Quarter Quell

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s 2025 novel, opens on 20 November. It tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy, Katniss’s future mentor, played as a teenager by Joseph Zada. Lionsgate is distributing.

Francis Lawrence, who has directed every film in the series since Catching Fire as well as the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is back at the helm. The screenplay is by Billy Ray, who co-wrote the first Hunger Games.

What the film is about

The story begins on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, 24 years before the events of the first book. It is the Second Quarter Quell, and twice as many tributes are sent into the arena. Among them is 16-year-old Haymitch from District 12. Audiences know he will win, but the film shows at what cost and how he became the cynical mentor seen in the earlier films.

Who is in it

• Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy;
• Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird;
• Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner;
• Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow;
• Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee;
• Elle Fanning as young Effie Trinket;
• Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman;
• Maya Hawke as Wiress;
• Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee;
• Lili Taylor as Mags;
• Glenn Close, Billy Porter and Ben Wang.

According to the Motion Picture Association, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson also return, their first appearance in the series since Mockingjay – Part 2 in 2015.

Behind the camera

James Newton Howard, who scored every previous film in the series, returns as composer, and Nina Jacobson of Color Force produces. Lionsgate unveiled the first footage in April 2026.

When to watch

The film opens on 20 November, exactly 11 years after Mockingjay – Part 2. Cast and stills are on the film’s page in our AMDB database.