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As soon as we knew Suzanne Collins was releasing another Hunger Games prequel, we knew there was going to be a movie. Sunrise on the Reaping tells the story of Haymitch Abernathy, one of the only victors from District 12, who would go on to mentor Katniss and Peeta in the original Hunger Games trilogy.
While there have been no official casting announcements made for the upcoming film adaptation, speculation, rumors, and fancastings are flying. So, here are some of the people you might see in the next Hunger Games movie.
Let’s chat Haymitch Abernathy first. Rumor has it that Charlie Plummer (Looking for Alaska) could take on the character first played in the original films by Woody Harrelson. But plenty of other actors have been thrown into the potential casting mix: Tom Glynn-Carney (House of the Dragon), Noah LaLonde (My Life with the Walter Boys), Rudy Pankow (Outer Banks), Drew Starkey (Outer Banks), and Kit Connor (Heartstopper), just to name a few.
Producer Nina Jacobson told Variety that ultimately, they’re looking for “somebody who very credibly feels like they could be a young version of this character, before the trauma and grief and rage that the fallout of the Games create… Nobody can be Woody Harrelson but Woody Harrelson, but you have to find that mischief that he has in him inherently and try to understand, if you turn back time from the man you meet at the beginning of The Hunger Games, who he was before all of that, and why he became that.” Do any of the aforementioned actors fit the bill? We’ll have to wait and see.
A lot of well-known Hunger Games characters make appearances in Sunrise on the Reaping, so of course, fans are dying to know who will play younger versions of these familiar faces. We might be seeing Ralph Fiennes as Coriolanus Snow. Recent Oscar winner Kieran Culkin could be joining the cast as Caeser Flickerman. Emma Thompson might play the role of Drusilla. And our favorite rumored castings so far? Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket and Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee.
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Sunrise on the Reaping also introduces fans to a bunch of new characters, and there has been some speculation about who could play these characters. Nothing official has been announced, but might we see Olivia Rodrigo return to acting to play Haymitch’s true love, Lenore Dove? Could Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher take on the role of Maysilee Donner? Fans would also love to see Justice Smith as Beetee Latier.
Fans are also speculating that Woody Harrelson could return to play the older version of Haymitch for a certain part of the book. If you’ve read it, you know what we mean. If you haven’t… no spoilers!
What are your thoughts? Who would you like to see in the upcoming Hunger Games movie? The novel Sunrise on the Reaping is out now. The film adaptation is set to be released on November 20, 2026.
The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
This week, we’re highlighting a post that had our Managing Editor Vanessa Diaz feeling a type of way. Now, even five years after it was published, Vanessa is still salty about American Dirt. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
Picture it: The United States, January 2020. A book with a pretty blue and white cover is making the rounds on the bookish internet. The blue ink forms a beautiful hummingbird motif against a creamy background, a bird associated with the sun god Huitzilopochtli in Aztec mythology. Black barbed wire, at once delicate and menacing, cuts the pattern into a grid resembling an arrangement of Talavera tiles. The package is eye-catching, ostensibly Mexican in feel, and evocative of borders and the migrant experience.
The book tells the story of a bookstore owner in Acapulco, Mexico, who is forced to flee her home when a drug cartel murders everyone in her family except for her young son at a quinceañera. She and the boy are forced to become migrants and embark on a treacherous journey north to the U.S. border, evading the cartel and befriending fellow migrants along the way. The book is being lauded not just as the “it” book of the season but as the immigration story. It gets the Oprah treatment and is praised by everyone from Salma Hayek to the great Sandra Cisneros, who called it “the great novel of Las Américas.”
It’s been over five years, and this book is still the bane of my existence.
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