The Hunger Games Is Finally Bringing Back Katniss And Peeta
Return to District 12.
The Hunger Games franchise was the centerpiece of the 2010s young adult dystopia boom, but after 2015’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, it seemed like we were leaving Panem for good, as Suzanne Collins had no more books to adapt. But that changed in 2020, when Collins released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel set more than 50 years before the first books. In 2023, that book was adapted into a movie starring Rachel Zegler, bringing a new generation into the fandom.
Now, that winning formula is being repeated with Sunrise on the Reaping, a second prequel novel following young Haymitch Abernathy during his own stint in the Hunger Games. Set between Songbirds and Snakes and the original Hunger Games, the book is also being adapted into a movie, and it will bring back two original stars.
Sunrise on the Reaping centers on Haymitch Abernathy, originally played by Woody Harrelson.
According to Variety, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will reprise their roles as Katniss and Peeta in Sunrise on the Reaping. So while most of the movie takes place in the past, with Joseph Zada playing a young Haymitch Abernathy, at least some of the film will flash forward to when we last saw our heroes in a newly-liberated District 12, where they were married and raising children.
For fans who read Sunrise on the Reaping, it’s clear how they’ll factor into the story, as the book’s epilogue follows an older Haymitch Abernathy as he slowly opens up to Katniss and Peeta about his tragic past. He even raises geese in honor of his lost love, Lenore Dove Baird, who raised a gaggle of them in her youth.
A young Haymitch (Joseph Zada) with Lenore Dove Baird (Whitney Peak) and her geese.
But if the movie is going to adapt the book’s epilogue, there’s still one key part missing: Haymitch himself. Woody Harrelson played the drunken mentor in the original movies, but has yet to be announced as part of the Sunrise on the Reaping cast. While it’s possible that Harrelson’s appearance just hasn’t been revealed or confirmed yet, it’s also possible the movie will change the epilogue to not include an older Haymitch.
Of the two prequels, Sunrise is more connected to the original films, as it features younger versions of characters like Caesar Flickerman and Effie Trinket. But the inclusion of a future Katniss and Peeta cements this as not just a prequel, but a sequel too, giving us a look at a happily ever after — or at least as happy as you can get in Panem.
