Tickets for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping are now on sale, and Lionsgate has released a new IMAX poster along with a teaser featuring some exciting new footage.
The trades reported that Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Woody Harrelson would reprise their respective roles as Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, and the older Haymitch Abernathy in the movie last year.
How these characters ultimately factor into this prequel (we assume they will appear at the end in a flash-forward sequence) remains to be seen, but Lawrence has now spoken for the first time about returning to the franchise as her most iconic character after 11 years.
“It was unbelievable,” Lawrence said on the latest episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. “It was so crazy. It was the same crew. It was the same AD, who I’ve worked with a million times because I love him. And with Josh [Hutcherson] and Woody [Harrelson] … it was so emotional. Josh and I didn’t walk to the bathroom without our arms around each other. It was so beautiful. And Woody, obviously, came through the window of my hotel room uninvited. It wouldn’t be the same if he listened to boundaries or used a door.”
The X-Men: First Class star also revealed that she was somewhat apprehensive about signing on for the first Hunger Games movie when she was 20 years old.
“What made me nervous was how it could negatively affect my acting career and my personal life. The one thing I was always sure of when I was younger was that I wanted to be a mom, and this looked so different than doing some indies. Twilight had just come out and everybody saw what that was. It was more like… how is this going to change my life and my acting career?”
From acclaimed director Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping follows sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) from District 12, beginning on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Annual Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, the biggest Games yet with twice as many tributes.
Set in the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, the story follows Haymitch into the arena, where he forms an unlikely alliance with fellow tribute Maysilee Donner (Mckenna Grace) and joins a coalition determined to challenge the Capitol’s control under President Snow (Ralph Fiennes). As the competition unfolds, Haymitch risks everything to take down the Games from within the arena — setting in motion the rebellion that will change Panem forever.
Based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel, the movie also stars Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. Produced by Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Francis Lawrence. Screenplay by Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie.