Breaking Down the Sunrise on the Reaping Teaser
Panem is open for business again.
Lionsgate has dropped the first teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the sixth film in the franchise and the second prequel, and the internet has immediately lost its composure. The film hits cinemas on 20 November 2026, exactly a year after this teaser landed.
Just when you'd recovered from the last batch of traumatised tributes, Panem shows up with another round.
What is Sunrise on the Reaping?
The film adapts Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel of the same name and is once again directed by Francis Lawrence, who steered the original sequels and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The script comes from Billy Ray, with franchise producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson back on board.
Timeline-wise, this one sits:
After The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Before Katniss ever volunteers as tribute
The story jumps 24 years before the first Hunger Games film, dropping us into the infamous 50th Hunger Games, better known as the Second Quarter Quell. This is the one where the Capitol decides the usual amount of brutality simply isn't enough and doubles the tributes from 24 to 48.
At the centre of the chaos: 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy, long before he's Woody Harrelson with a bottle and a hangover. In this film he's played by Joseph Zada, and we finally see the Games that turn him into the broken, sharp-edged mentor we meet in the original trilogy.
A stacked cast bringing Panem back to life
If you felt like Songbirds & Snakes was star-heavy, Sunrise on the Reaping looks like the cast was designed for maximum discourse - prestige regulars, festival favourites, and people you definitely recognise from that ‘one performance' your mate won't shut up about.
Key players confirmed so far include:
Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy
Mckenna Grace as fellow tribute Maysilee Donner
Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch's girlfriend back in District 12
Ralph Fiennes inheriting President Coriolanus Snow duties
Elle Fanning stepping into the role of Effie Trinket
Kieran Culkin as the Games' host Caesar Flickerman
Glenn Close as the sinister official Drusilla Sickle
Billy Porter as Magno Stift
Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier
Maya Hawke as Wiress
Lili Taylor returning as Mags Flanagan
The teaser doesn't showcase everyone, but Close's transformation is already its own mini-headline. People magazine described her as “unrecognisable” in her Capitol look, which fits nicely with the franchise's tradition of turning Oscar winners into unhinged government employees.
How brutal is this Quarter Quell going to be?
Short answer: very.
Longer answer: early synopses and feature coverage have been pointing to the Second Quarter Quell as “the most violent Games yet,” specifically because of the doubled tributes, the more elaborate arena, and the Capitol's obsession with turning this into a spectacle that cements its power.
The film looks set to explore:
How the Games warp Haymitch's sense of morality and trust
The rise of propaganda, as the Capitol leans harder into controlling the narrative rather than just the outcome
The idea that these particular Games send ripple effects into Panem's future, laying groundwork for the rebellions we see later on
Basically, we're not just watching kids murder each other in the woods again - this time it's in a perfect Midsommar themed sun-drenched flower circle, while the system quietly fine-tunes itself into the machine Katniss eventually breaks.