Lionsgate Reveals Character Posters for ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’

A history lesson bathed in blood, but at least the posters are pretty.

14 “Hunger Games” Character Posters Revealed

Lionsgate just unveiled 14 gorgeous character posters for the upcoming release of “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” a Haymitch Abernathy-focused prequel to the Katniss Everdeen series. The film follows “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” released into 2023. Based on the posters and trailer alone, “Sunrise on the Reaping” promises to be as colorful and overwhelming as the original series.

Back to the World of Panem

“Sunrise on the Reaping” expands the universe Suzanne Collins created, following a rebellious young boy named Haymitch Abernathy from District 12, who gets selected in a chaotic Reaping. If you know Abernathy from the previous movies or books, you know he has a dark past that caused him to be a bit of a drinker and is Katniss’ beloved mentor.

The film will focus on his preparation and eventual survival in the 50th Annual Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, the biggest Games yet with twice as many tributes, meaning twice as many deaths. The story takes place 24 years before Katniss’ volunteering as tribute for the Games herself and takes us back into the cruel, sick government of Panem. Abernathy quickly gets wrapped up in a beef with President Snow, unwillingly recruited in a coup, and has to facilitate a heinous cover-up because everyone he loves is in danger.

If the movie is anything like the book, audiences are in for another tearjerking, tragic, yet beautiful look at how the spirit of rebellion never dies; it goes on, it evolves. Collins has always had a knack for telling devastating stories about young people that are not only written well, but are easily digestible and translatable to wider audiences.

Directed by Francis Lawrence, with a screenplay by Billy Ray, “Sunrise on the Reaping” stars Joseph Zada (Haymitch Abernathy), Jesse Plemons (Plutarch Heavensbee), Ralph Fiennes (President Snow), Glenn Close (Drusilla Sickle), Kieran Culkin (Caesar Flickerman), Elle Fanning (Effie Trinket), Mckenna Grace (Maysilee Donner), Maya Hawke (Wiress), Whitney Peak (Lenore Dove Baird), and Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Beetee Latier).

“The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” releases in the U.S. November 20, 2026.