Ahead of its release in theaters this November, new footage from The Hunger Games: The Sunrise on the Reaping has found its way online today (via SFFGazette.com).
In the surprise sneak peek, we get to see Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier, Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow, Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan, Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, and Maya Hawke as Wiress.
For longtime fans, one of the biggest surprises will be a first look at Katniss Everdeen's parents, Burdock and Asterid. The latter wasn't featured in the original movies as he died in a mine explosion five years before the 74th Hunger Games.
In The Hunger Games: The Sunrise on the Reaping, Scot Greenan (T2 Trainspotting) plays Burdock, while Grace Ackary (The Winter King) has been cast as Asterid.
Visually, the fiftieth annual Hunger Games looks a little more colourful and out there than the others we've seen on screen. It will be how this movie connects and enhances the previous movies that promises to be most interesting, of course.
Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honour 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.
The cast of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping includes Joseph Zada, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak, Jesse Plemons, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, Lili Taylor, Billy Porter, Glenn Close, and Ralph Fiennes.
Francis Lawrence, who directed 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, 2015's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, and 2023's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, directs from a script by The Hunger Games scribe Billy Ray.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be released in theaters on November 20, 2026.