Meet Haymitch in this Featurette For The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

Meet Haymitch in the first featurette for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

To celebrate Haymitch Abernathy’s birthday, Lionsgate has unveiled the first featurette for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. This one obviously focuses on our birthday boy Haymitch and gives us a more in depth look at the film. The emotional featurette promises both heartfelt moments and epic action as it introduces Joseph Zada in the fan-favourite role of Haymitch Abernathy for the upcoming film. The character was originally portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the original film series.

The film adaptation of the best-selling novel hits theaters on November 20, 2026. It is both a sequel to The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and a prequel to The Hunger Games.

SYNOPSIS

THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING revisits the world of Panem and follows young Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) 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.

Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy in *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping*. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate

CAST & CREW

Francis Lawrence will direct from a screenplay adaptation by Billy Ray. Color Force’s Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson will produce. Cameron MacConomy will executive produce. As always, the film is based on Suzanne Collins’s novel.

Lawrence has put together a phenomenal cast to bring this chapter of The Hunger Games to the screen. The film will star Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, and Ralph Fiennes as President Snow. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson also reprise their roles as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, respectively.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will release in cinemas on November 20, 2026.