‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ movie release date, plot, cast, and more

The odds are ever in Hunger Games fans’ favor. Not even one year out from the release of The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the first entry in the dystopian movie franchise since 2015, Lionsgate has announced that a sixth film is already on its way.

Just like Ballad was based on a standalone prequel novel from author and creator Suzanne Collins, so is this new movie — titled The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. They really didn’t waste time on adapting this one either. Collins announced the book’s existence on June 6… Just a few hours later, the screen adaptation was handed a release date!

So what do we know as dawn breaks on Sunrise on the Reaping? Here’s everything already revealed about your next return trip to Panem.

What’s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping about?

In short, this one’s about Haymitch. As hardcore Hunger Gamers will know, before he was mentor to Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, Haymitch was the winner of the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell games. As we saw in Catching Fire, based around the 75th Hunger Games, the Quarter Quells are always unusual and unique to make them a greater celebratory spectacle.

So, just to clarify the math, Sunrise on the Reaping will be set 24 years before the original Hunger Games begins and 40 years after the events of Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Get ready to follow a young Haymitch Abernathy from the day of the reaping to his dark victory, making him the first winner from District 12 until Katniss and Peeta.

Just as you would expect, Collins has teased that the new book/film will tap into the kind of timely topics that have always underpinned the franchise:

“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 has revealed. “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.”

Who’s in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and who’s making it?

At this point, it’s too early for there to be any concrete casting intel, but the fact that Haymitch will be the main character means that we know they’re looking for a young actor to take over from Woody Harrelson in the role. What’s more, there’s the potential for Harrelson himself to appear as the present-day Haymitch, perhaps for a cameo or wraparound narrative.

As for who will be behind the camera, don’t all pass out at once but it looks like director Francis Lawrence could return once more to helm this next installment in the series. Lawrence (no relation to former leading lady Jennifer) has directed every single Hunger Games film except the first one, helmed by Gary Ross. Deadline reports that Lawrence is only in talks at present, though, so it’s possible he may pass on the project and hand the reins of the franchise to a fresh pair of hands.

When does The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping release?

I told you they weren’t waiting around with this one. While Sunrise on the Reaping the book is set to hit shelves on March 18, 2025, Sunrise the Reaping the movie is set to hit screens on Nov. 20, 2026 — just a year and three-quarters later. For comparison, it took over three years for 2020 book Ballad to be translated into a film.

Even so, Lionsgate has still got a couple of years before its premiere so the studio has plenty of time to take care with the scripting, the casting, and the other aspects of pre-production in order to make sure this one clears the high bar set by the previous offerings of the saga. The same might not be true of the poor saps in these films, but Hunger Games fans never lose.