SUNRISE ON THE REAPING Movie Reportedly Cast CHALLENGERS Star Mike Faist as Haymitch Abernathy — GeekTyrant

A few months ago it was announced that author Suzanne Collins was writing a new Hunger Games novel titled The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and that Lionsgate was also developing it as a feature film.

This is the fifth novel in The Hunger Games series, and this is another prequel to the original trilogy that takes place 40 years after the events of the last novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

Now, according to Production Weekly, West Side Story and  Challengers star Mike Faist may be in line to lead the cast of the film, and that he may take on the role of a young version of Haymitch Abernathy, who was previously played Woody Harrelson in the original trilogy.

The story will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter.

Collins talked about the new book saying: “With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

“The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”

Adam Fogelson, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group: “Suzanne Collins is a master storyteller and our creative north star. We couldn’t be more fortunate than to be guided and trusted by a collaborator whose talent and imagination are so consistently brilliant.

“We know Hunger Games fans worldwide will be spellbound by where Suzanne has focused this next extraordinary story. The Second Quarter Quell is legendary and looms large over the history of the Games, even into the time of Katniss Everdeen a quarter-century later.

“Like fans around the globe, we are eagerly anticipating this exciting return to Panem.”

Francis Lawrence, who directed 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2014’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, 2015’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, and 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, will helm this next movie.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in theaters on November 20, 2026.