Sunrise On The Reaping’ Trailer

Sunrise on the Reaping

Lionsgate

Lionsgate is once again going back to the Hunger Games well with a new film, Sunrise on the Reaping, based on yet another prequel story in the series after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Now, there’s a new trailer out, and we can see the cast in action. The timeline lines up more with many of the characters from the original films, much younger versions, but who are you seeing there, and who are they playing?

We see most of the big names here in the initial two-minute spot.

Effie Trinket – Elle Fanning (see above)

Plutarch Heavensbee – Jesse Plemons

President Snow – Ralph Fiennes

Caesar Flickerman – Kieran Culkin (not seen, unless I missed him)

No, Katniss wasn’t born yet, of course. So no infant required for casting there. We also have a long list of new characters, and some known actors playing some of them for this prequel (albeit its lead is a relatively new face)

Haymitch Abernathy – Joseph Zada

Drusilla Sickle – Glenn Close

Maysilee Donner – Mckenna Grace

Wiress – Maya Hawke

Wyatt Callow – Ben Wang

Proserpina – Iris Apatow

Lenore Dove Baird – Whitney Peak

Magno Stift – Billy Porter

And the whole thing is directed by Francis Lawrence, who did Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, three-quarters of the original series.

It’s no big surprise that Lionsgate keeps making new films in an era where most YA projects have faded from view. The Hunger Games franchise is a monster, and this film especially, with more well-known names, is likely to do well, even if we know the ending (spoiler, this is the games that Haymitch wins). Here’s the box office on this series:

• The Hunger Games – $695 million
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – $869 million
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – $758 million
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 – $664 million
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – $361 million

You can see the drop-off prequel Songbirds and Snakes, released eight years after the last film, using mostly unknown characters and actors. Still, that haul is supposedly 3x its budget, so it can still be called a hit. My guess would be that Sunrise on the Reaping will perform better. Better concept, better cast, I’d argue (don’t get me wrong, I do love Rachel Zegler). And this director did most of the original hit films as well.

Lionsgate moved fast on Sunrise on the Reaping, which only came out eight months ago. They knew they were going to make the film well before that and hope to capitalize on its popularity by releasing it as soon as they can. Unfortunately, as soon as they can on November 20, 2026, a full year away. So we will have to be content with this trailer for now.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.