Hunger Games returns with deadly secrets and darker mysteries

After The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes took the box office by storm, Lionsgate is quickly moving forward with Sunrise on the Reaping, the next Hunger Games prequel.

This time, the story takes a closer look at the troubled past of Haymitch Abernathy, one of the series’ most popular characters.

While The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes only brought in a few familiar faces, this movie shines the spotlight on several key characters long before they met Katniss Everdeen.

Sunrise on the Reaping finally reveals the long-awaited backstory of Haymitch Abernathy, District 12’s legendary victor, giving fans a deeper look into his journey before he became a key figure in the Hunger Games saga.

Known for his tough attitude and drinking in the original series, Haymitch is shown here as a young tribute just trying to survive one of the deadliest Hunger Games.

In Suzanne Collins’s novel, the traumatic events that left Haymitch deeply scarred.

“The year he went into the arena, the Games demanded not two but four tributes from each district,” which, of course, “means he had to watch twice as many people die.”

The trauma from that experience, already unbearable in normal conditions, was intensified during the 50th Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

However, This part of the Hunger Games story unfolds 24 years before the events of the original series.