'Sunrise on the Reaping' teaser: Everything about new 'Hunger Games' prequel

The first look at the new Hunger Games prequel is here!

Lionsgate dropped the official teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on Thursday, November 20. The film is set to release on November 20, 2026, and follows the story of a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as he faces the 50th annual Hunger Games (the Second Quarter Quell).

The spine-tingling trailer shows the tense 10-second countdown as tributes wait for the buzzer to race towards the cornucopia and snatch up their weapon of choice before as they battle for survival.

“Twice the number of tributes, twice the glory. It’s time… for the second Quarter Quell,” announces Glenn Close’s Drusilla Sickle, the District 12 escort before Effie Trinket.

Set two decades before the events of the original Hunger Games trilogy, the new movie shows Joseph Zada taking over from Woody Harrelson as OG heroine Katniss Everdeen’s mentor. Whitney Peak plays Haymitch’s love interest, Lenore Dove Baird.

Fans of the Hunger Games franchise will get to meet more of the iconic characters as their younger versions, including Caesar Flickerman, Coriolanus Snow, Plutarch Heavensbee, Mags, Wiress, Beetee, and more.

Although Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping book was released in March 2025, production of the film adaptation started just three months later on June 6.

Keep reading to find out more about the star-studded cast.

Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, and more ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ cast

Here is a more comprehensive list of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping cast:

• Joseph Zada as a young Haymitch Abernathy, previously portrayed by Woody Harrelson.
• Elle Fanning as a young Effie Trinket, previously portrayed by Elizabeth Banks
• Kieran Culkin as young Causer Flickerman, originally played by Stanli Tucci
• Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus Snow, previously portrayed by Donald Sutherland and Tom Blyth
• Jesse Plemons as young Plutarch Heavensbee, originally played by Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle
• Maya Hawke as young Wiress
• Lili Taylor as young Mags
• Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, a new character and Haymitch’s girlfriend
• McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Haymitch’s fellow District 12 tribute
• Kelvin Harrison Jr. as young Beetee
• Ben Wang, Billy Porter, Iris Apatow, and Kara Tointon will also join the star-studded cast.

Director Francis Lawrencce returns for his fifth entry in the franchise with the screenplay penned by Billy Ray, who co-wrote the original 2012 film.

Let the 50th Hunger Games begin!