After the film release of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in 2023, it seems the mid-2020s Hunger Games resurgence is only growing stronger. The series’ creator, Suzanne Collins, is now working on a fifth book, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, slated to release on March 18, 2025. But the news gets better for fans of Collins’ dystopian universe: A movie adaptation of the new book is already on its way.
In a press release, Adam Fogelson of Lionsgate said of the upcoming film: “Suzanne Collins is a master storyteller and our creative north star. We couldn’t be more fortunate than to be guided and trusted by a collaborator whose talent and imagination are so consistently brilliant. We know Hunger Games fans worldwide will be spellbound by where Suzanne has focused this next extraordinary story. The Second Quarter Quell is legendary and looms large over the history of the Games, even into the time of Katniss Everdeen a quarter-century later. Like fans around the globe, we are eagerly anticipating this exciting return to Panem.”
While it will be some time until we get to see the Districts on the screen again, here’s what to look forward to when Sunrise on the Reaping at last arrives.
Who was cast in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping?
Joseph Zada will play Haymitch Abernathy.
Whitney Peak will play Lenore Dove Baird.
In April 2025, a bevy of casting news was released, including who would play Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the original Hunger Games films): Australian actor Joseph Zada. Deadline also reported that Whitney Peak would play Haymitch’s girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird. The outlet then shared that Jesse Plemons landed the role of Plutarch Heavensbee, and McKenna Grace will play Maysilee Donner, one of the District 12 tributes.
In May 2025, even more cast updates were announced. Deadline reported that Kelvin Harrison Jr. will play Beetee Latier, the winner of the 34th Hunger Games and father of Ampert Latier, a Tribute in the 50th Hunger Games. Variety announced that Maya Hawke will take on the role of Wiress, a District 12 mentor and former Hunger Games champion. Lili Taylor will play another mentor, Mags. Ben Wang will play Wyatt Callow, a District 12 Tribute. Ralph Fiennes has taken on the role of the infamous President Snow (portrayed by Donald Sutherland in Hunger Games and Tom Blyth in the prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes). Elle Fanning will play Effie Trinket (played by Elizabeth Banks in the original films). And Kieran Culkin will play the host, Caesar Flickerman (originated by Stanley Tucci).
In June 2025, Deadline revealed two new cast additions: Glenn Close and Billy Porter. Close will play Drusilla Sickle, the mean-spirited escort to the District 12 Tributes, and Porter will play Magno Stift, Sickle’s distant husband and the Tributes’ designer.
On June 16, Porter shared the news in a joint Instagram post with Lionsgate and The Hunger Games’ official account.
When does The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping come out?
Sunrise on the Reaping will hit theaters on Nov. 20, 2026.
On June 6, the official Hunger Games Instagram account shared the news, mere hours after Scholastic announced that Collins was at work on another book.
“Welcome to the Second Quarter Quell,” the caption reads.
What will The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping be about?
The fifth installment of The Hunger Games series will be a second prequel, this time focused on protagonist Haymitch Abernathy. Fans will remember Haymitch as Katniss and Peeta’s mentor during their games, as well as the second-ever victor from District 12 (behind Lucy Gray Baird). Sunrise on the Reaping takes place 40 years after the events in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and will show Haymitch’s backstory, as well as his time in the Quarter Quell, well before the events of the main Hunger Games trilogy.
“Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the Reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell,” according to Scholastic. Read our full breakdown of the ending here.
Author Suzanne Collins also shared that Scottish philosopher David Hume served as one of her inspirations for her newest work.
“With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,’” Collins revealed in a statement. “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
This story will be updated.
