The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Unleashes a Gripping Teaser Led by Elle Fanning and Mckenna Grace
Lionsgate drops the official teaser for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, a prequel set 24 years before the original that hurls young District 12 tribute Haymitch Abernathy into the 50th Games—long before he becomes mentor to Katniss and Peeta. Elle Fanning and Mckenna Grace headline.
Lionsgate just dropped the first teaser for 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' - the Haymitch Abernathy prequel you probably guessed was coming but maybe not this stacked. We jump back 24 years before the first movie, to the 50th Hunger Games, where District 12 sends a 16-year-old Haymitch into the arena long before he becomes Katniss Everdeen's grumpy mentor.
The setup
This one lands during the second Quarter Quell. Quick refresher: in a normal year, each district coughs up two tributes. For a Quarter Quell, the Capitol doubles it. So yes, 48 kids and teens enter, and only one walks out. The teaser leans into that bigger, meaner scale and frames it around Haymitch waking up on reaping day, which, if you know your franchise lore, is a bad morning to be a 16-year-old in District 12.
Cast lineup
- Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy
- Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner
- Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird
- Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee
- Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier
- Maya Hawke as Wiress
- Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow
- Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket
- Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman
- Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan
- Billy Porter as Magno Stift
- Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle
- Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow
Behind the camera
Francis Lawrence directs from a script by Billy Ray, adapting Suzanne Collins' novel. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson produce, with Cameron MacConomy on board as executive producer.
Where it fits and when it arrives
'Sunrise on the Reaping' is the sixth film in the Hunger Games run and the second prequel. The first four followed Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss as she pushed back against the Capitol. 2023's 'The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' rewound to the 10th Games to track a young Coriolanus Snow. Now we jump forward to the 50th, where Haymitch takes center stage.
Mark it down: 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' hits theaters November 20, 2026.
One more note on the casting because it is a little eyebrow-raising: yes, that is Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket and Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman. The movie seems very interested in folding familiar faces into this earlier era, which should make the Capitol pageantry... complicated in a fun way.