Hunger Games prequel push
Lionsgate released a new poster for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and has a new trailer due tomorrow, with the film kept on schedule for a November 20 theatrical release (bleedingcool.com). Early footage and coverage show Kieran Culkin as a younger Caesar Flickerman and confirm Francis Lawrence is directing, while reporting identifies Joseph Zada as young Haymitch Abernathy and Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird—story action is set 24 years before the original, on the morning of the Fiftieth Hunger Games (the Second Quarter Quell) ( ).
Lionsgate has started the next push for *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping* with a new poster, a trailer rollout, and a theatrical release date of November 20, 2026. (bleedingcool.com) (lionsgate.com) The film is directed by Francis Lawrence, who has helmed every *Hunger Games* movie since *Catching Fire*, and Lionsgate announced the adaptation in June 2024 before Suzanne Collins’s novel reached stores. (lionsgate.com) Joseph Zada is playing a young Haymitch Abernathy, and Whitney Peak is playing Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch’s girlfriend. Trade reports on April 23, 2025 first identified them as the movie’s two leads. (deadline.com) (variety.com) The story goes back 24 years before Katniss Everdeen’s first arena and begins on the morning of the reaping for the Fiftieth Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell. In that Quell, twice as many tributes are taken from the districts. (scholastic.com) (shop.scholastic.com) That setup makes the movie a Haymitch prequel and a bridge between *The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes* and the original 2012 film. Lionsgate’s franchise page now lists an official teaser under Zada’s name, signaling that marketing has shifted from casting news to footage. (scholastic.com) (lionsgate.com 1) (lionsgate.com 2) Early footage shown in April 2026 gave fans their first look at Kieran Culkin as a younger Caesar Flickerman, the Capitol host played by Stanley Tucci in the original films. Coverage of that promo also pointed to more returning-era characters recast for the prequel timeline. (gamesradar.com) (deadline.com) Scholastic said the novel sold more than 1.5 million World English copies in its first week after its March 18, 2025 release. That sales figure gave Lionsgate a fresh bestseller to market less than two years before the film opens. (scholastic.com 1) (scholastic.com 2) Scholastic has already scheduled both a trade paperback and a movie tie-in paperback for January 27, 2026, months ahead of the film’s release. The studio’s latest poster-and-trailer beat fits that broader campaign to move the book and movie together into the fall. (scholastic.com) (bleedingcool.com) The immediate next marker is the trailer drop tied to Lionsgate’s new poster push. After that, the franchise heads toward November 20, 2026, when Panem returns to theaters with Haymitch at the center. (bleedingcool.com) (lionsgate.com)
