After Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the Hunger Games franchise is pushing forward a few years to tell the story of a young Haymitch Abernathy in Sunrise on the Reaping.
The cast for the movie has been slowly building, and according to The Wrap, Stranger Things star Maya Hawke has joined the project in the part of champion Wiress. For context, Wiress was played by Amanda Plummer in Catching Fire, and she’s a fellow victor of District 3 alongside Beetee (Jeffrey Wright).
It’s funny that Hawke should be cast because both her and Plummer have been in Quentin Tarantino flicks. Hawke was in Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, and Plummer was famously Yolanda in Pulp Fiction.
Besides Hawke, Sunrise also has McKenna Grace (Maysilee Donner), Whitney Peak (Lenore Dove Baird), and Joseph Zada, who will play a young Haymitch. Jesse Plemons is also playing a younger Plutarch Heavensbee (originally played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and Kelvin Harrison Jr. is playing a young Beetee.
Gone are the days of the YA blockbuster, but Hunger Games still manages to get fans riled up—especially since the last movie really leaned into the forbidden romance of Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth.
Hopefully Sunrise on the Reaping will continue the main class struggle themes of the original franchise; but I am hoping that a third film will push the story past the events of Mockingjay and explore how the world has evolved post Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set to come out in theaters on Nov. 20, 2026.
