Lionsgate went hard with their biggest franchises at CinemaCon. First they loaded up with more John Wick, and now it’s The Hunger Games. The studio revealed that Billy Ray will return to adapt Suzanne Collins’ latest novel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise On the Reaping. Not only that, but director Francis Lawrence will return as previously suspected. Shooting is to begin in July.
Sunrise On the Reaping marks the fifth Hunger Games movie directed by Lawrence. He last took the helm for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and has Stephen King horror The Long Walk arriving this September. Ray returns to the franchise for the first time since 2012.
Lionsgate is wasting no time with this one, as Collins’ book was published only last month. The story follows a young Haymitch Abernathy, the hard-drinking mentor played by Woody Harrelson in previous movies.
Challengers actor Mike Faist has been rumored for the role of Haymitch, but nothing is confirmed.
Here is the official synopsis:THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING 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 Quell.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise On the Reaping hits theaters on November 20th 2026.
