Panem is calling us back to the arena, and this time the stakes are twice as deadly. Lionsgate just dropped a brand-new trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and it is everything fans of the franchise have been waiting for. The film storms into U.S. theaters and IMAX on November 20, 2026, and the countdown to the 50th Hunger Games is officially on.
The new footage puts the spotlight on a young Haymitch Abernathy, played by Joseph Zada. Set 24 years before the original Hunger Games, the story follows 16-year-old Haymitch after he is reaped as a District 12 tribute for the Second Quarter Quell. And this is no ordinary Games: the Quarter Quell sends 48 tributes into the arena instead of the usual 24, doubling the danger and the heartbreak.
Directed by Francis Lawrence, who has steered the franchise since Catching Fire, the film adapts Suzanne Collins's 2025 novel of the same name. It is the sixth Hunger Games movie and the second prequel, following 2023's The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The screenplay comes from Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie, and the film runs 158 minutes, making it the longest entry in the series so far.
The trailer also introduces Haymitch's alliance with fellow District 12 tribute Maysilee Donner, played by Mckenna Grace, as he starts looking for a way to resist the Capitol. Around them is a stacked ensemble cast:
- Joseph Zada as young Haymitch Abernathy
- Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner
- Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird
- Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow
- Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee
- Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket
- Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman
- Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle
What makes this one hit so hard is that we already know how Haymitch's story ends: the sharp-tongued, haunted mentor we met in the original films. Sunrise on the Reaping shows us how he got there, and the trailer makes it clear this will be a brutal, emotional ride. The arena looks bigger, the Capitol looks colder, and the odds look worse than ever.
If you need a refresher before opening night, now is the perfect time to revisit the earlier films and Collins's novel. Then mark your calendar: November 20, 2026. The 50th Hunger Games are coming, and you will not want to miss a single second of it. May the odds be ever in your favor.
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