Fans of The Hunger Games are surely getting excited as details about the next entry in the franchise have been unveiled. Earlier this year, it was announced that author Suzanne Collins was developing a new book in The Hunger Games franchise that would also be adapted into a film. Titled Sunrise on the Reaping, it was previously announced that the book would center on Haymitch, one of the few winners from District 12 who mentored Katniss and Peeta in the original series and was played by Woody Harrelson in the films.
The Hunger Games publisher Scholastic, via The Hollywood Reporter, revealed the official synopsis for Sunrise on the Reaping. The story is set 24 years before The Hunger Games and takes place during the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, which Haymitch goes on to win. The novel will be released on March 18, 2025, five years after the publication of the previous Hunger Games novel, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The plot description reads:
“As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight … and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.”
Regarding her return to Panem, author Suzanne Collins details what inspired the new prequel story. “With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,'” Collins explains. “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
Lionsgate is already moving quickly to adapt Sunrise on the Reaping. The studio had already confirmed development on The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping when the book was officially announced. Francis Lawrence, who has directed every Hunger Games film since Catching Fire, is set to return to the helm while casting for Haymitch is currently underway. The movie is set for the franchise’s coveted Friday before Thanksgiving release date and will open on November 20, 2026. That will mark the quickest turnaround between Hunger Games novel and film adaptation, as the movie will hit theaters 18 months after the book’s publication.
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Everything We Know About Haymitch’s Games from the Original Hunger Games Trilogy
With a new movie is on the way, there are a few things we already know about the 50th Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will also arrive in theaters three years after The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. That film was also a prequel, set during the very first Hunger Games and about 50 years before Sunrise on the Reaping and 74 years before the first Hunger Games. Despite not reaching the box office heights of the original Hunger Games films, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes did manage to gross $166 million domestically and $337 million at the worldwide box office. After an incredibly rough year of flops, including Borderlands, The Crow, The Killer’s Game, and Megalopolis, Lionsgate certainly needs the reliable box office that The Hunger Games franchise provides.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping
opens in theaters on November 20, 2026.