Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are returning to Panem for a Hunger Games prequel.
Updated December 11, 2025, at 11:10 a.m. ET
Peeta and Katniss are back in the arena, but this time in Sunrise on the Reaping.
The Hunger Games film franchise recently celebrated a notable revival as its original stars, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, sign on to reprise their iconic roles in the forthcoming prequel Sunrise on the Reaping. The news was reported by The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline, with confirmation that the movie is scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 20, 2026.
Lawrence, 35, and Hutcherson, 33, mark a full-circle moment, having burst onto the scene in 2012 with the first Hunger Games film and then returning for three sequels. Their involvement helps solidify the connection between the beloved novels by Suzanne Collins and the expanding on-screen universe.
Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before the events of the original series, during the 50th Hunger Games era. The story centers on Haymitch Abernathy, the mentor to Katniss and Peeta in the films, portrayed by Woody Harrelson.
This prequel follows Collins’ prior expansion, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, released in 2020, which also received a Hollywood adaptation.
Cast updates announced so far for Sunrise on the Reaping include a raft of rising talents alongside the returning leads:
- Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle
- Billy Porter as Magno Stift
- Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman
- Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket
- Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus Snow
- Maya Hawke as Wiress
- Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee
- Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy
- Iris Apatow as Proserpina
- Iona Bell as Lou Lou
- Molly McCann as Louella McCoy
- Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird
- Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner
- Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan
- Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier
- Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow
- Laura Marcus as Silka Sharp
- Percy Daggs IV as Ampert Latier
- Rada Rae as Wellie
- Jhaleil Swaby as Panache
- Edvin Ryding as Vitus
- Jax Guerrero as Tibby
- Sandra Förster as Hersilia
Francis Lawrence is in talks to direct Sunrise on the Reaping, after directing every Hunger Games installment except the 2012 original.
Contributing: Clare Mulroy, Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
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