Lionsgate has released the official trailer for ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,’ and social media users are already predicting it will be a box office success. 

The film, based on Suzanne Collins’ novel of the same name, will hit cinemas in November 2026. 

Actor Joseph Zada will star as young Haymitch Abernathy in the film. Woody Harrelson played the character in the first ‘Hunger Games’ movies. 

‘Gossip Girl‘ actress Whitney Peak will portray Haymitch’s love interest, Lenore Dove Baird. 

‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ cast also includes Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman and Ralph Fiennes as President Snow. 

The film is a prequel to ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy, and a sequel to 2023’s ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’. 

‘Sunrise of 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”. 

Haymitch, who later became Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) mentor, took part in the games and lived to tell the tale.  

The film will follow Haymitch’s journey to becoming the victor of the games. 

Social media users are impressed by the 2:24-minute trailer, which was released on Monday, April 13. 

“This trailer is quite literally perfect. It isn’t the tone I imagined, but it’s the tone that is necessary. We’ve returned to the Hunger Games,” one YouTube user wrote. 

Another user wrote, “I’m seated… the cinema employees are scared and keep telling me it’s ‘not November 20th yet’, but I’m simply too seated.”

A third added, “They really nailed the casting of young Effie Trinket with Elle Fanning.” 

Watch ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ trailer below. 

Image credit: YouTube/ Lionsgate Movies