Set 24 years before the events of the original trilogy, Sunrise on the Reaping follows a young Haymitch Abernathy as he's thrust into the brutal 50th Hunger Games — a Quarter Quell that doubles the tributes and raises the stakes to terrifying new heights. Based on Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel, the film explores how a scrappy, sharp-witted teenager from District 12 is forged into victor audiences first met in the original films. Themes of survival, cruelty, and the cost of winning run throughout, promising the same moral weight that made the franchise a cultural touchstone. Francis Lawrence, who helmed Catching Fire through Mockingjay, brings deep familiarity with Panem's world to this chapter.
