Here’s The Final, Perfect Cast Of ‘Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping’

As common as fancasting is, rarely is it taken to heart by those making the films themselves. But for Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping? It’s like practically all of the roles were cast by Twitter fans.

As of yesterday, Sunrise of the Reaping has rounded out its cast, and its final two actors are the ones that fans were yelling about the most in terms of who would be perfect. That would be Kieran Culkin and Elle Fanning. I figure I’ll just go through all the roles:

Kieran Culkin as Young Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci, seen above)

Elle Fanning as Young Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks)

Jesse Plemons as Younger Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

Ralph Fiennes as Younger President Snow (Donald Sutherland)

They join McKenna Grace, Lili Taylor and Joseph Zada as important but not “younger” versions of existing characters that fans deemed perfect even before they were cast. This goes for both looks and I would argue the ability to act like these characters. Watch Elle Fanning in The Great, watch Kieran Culkin in Succession, watch Jesse Plemons in anything. And I mean, who wouldn’t want Ralph Fiennes as the villain in their film?

The movie, based on a new Hunger Games book by Suzanne Collins which was released in March of 2025, takes place in between the Snow prequel film The Ballad of Songs and Snakes and the famous Jennifer Lawrence trilogy adaptation. Here is the synopsis of this story:

“Explores Panem 24 years before Katniss’ saga, starting on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, where a young Haymitch Abernathy participates.”

It’s not that Haymitch Abernathy participates, it’s that he wins, which is not a spoiler if you have seen the original trilogy and he is…alive. It’s also the case that two of the roles are younger versions of actors who have tragically passed away, Philip Seymour Hoffman (2014) and Donald Sutherland (2024).

How is this film going to perform? We can reference The Ballad of Songs and Snakes which it will probably be closer to than the huge original Hunger Games set of films. Songs and Snakes ended up making $348 million worldwide, and a quarter of a billion dollars is certainly enough to keep going. I think that this one may do even better given that it has so many actors playing younger versions of OG Hunger Games actors, rather than just a teenage Snow. This should be a good earner.

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