News The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping The Second Quarter Quell Begins in the Trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Haymitch Abernathy’s story is coming to the big screen next year By Molly Templeton | Published on November 20, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We all remember what a Quarter Quell is from Catching Fire, right? Does anyone need a refresher? It’s when, every 25 years, the ever-so-clever folks in the Capitol put a fun little twist on the Hunger Games! Super nifty! Though in Sunrise on the Reaping, it’s more your garden-variety absolute horror: They send twice as many kids to the arena. That’s 48 young people fighting each other to the death instead of 24. And, because this story takes place long before Katniss comes on the scene, we know who the winner is. It’s the guy who grows up to be Woody Harrelson. Sunrise on the Reaping is the story of the 50th Hunger Games, which were won by Haymitch Abernathy. As a novel, it’s interesting, though the mechanics of the Games and their aftermath—the alliances, the tragedies, the all-powerful hand of President Snow—feel a bit familiar. But reading, it’s impossible not to remember Haymitch in The Hunger Games, and the shattered mess he was as played by Harrelson. So it’s pretty heartbreaking watching this kid take his first major steps down that path. And the spectacle, well, it’ll be a spectacle—especially with this cast. This trailer is mostly a teaser for the Games themselves, focusing on the young tributes, their initial race toward the Cornucopia, and the horrors that follow. But there are brief shots of the movie’s impeccably selected cast, which includes Jesse Plemons as young Plutarch Heavensbee (the role previously played by Philip Seymour Hoffman); a beaming Elle Fanning as young Effie Trinket (previously Elizabeth Banks); Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle (that’s her at the beginning, in yellow); and Ralph Fiennes as a dramatically coiffed President Snow (previously Donald Sutherland). The tributes are largely played by less well-known actors, but that’s Joseph Zada leading the cast as Haymitch (though he looks more like a young, blond Rufus Sewell than he does like Harrelson). Whitney Peak plays his girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird; Mckenna Grace plays Maysilee Donner, another tribute from District 12. Also in the cast but not seen here: Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman; Maya Hawke as Wiress; Lili Taylor as Mags; and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Betee. And Billy Porter as Magno Stift. If you have read Sunrise, you may notice that this trailer shows a ton of major moments from the novel, though in quickly cut shots that give little away. It’s still a little disconcerting, but not as much as the fact that the trailer never lets Zada speak, relying instead on a line from Harrison himself: “I think these games are gonna be different.” (You can hear him say it in the Catching Fire trailer.) With a lush green arena and also an exploding volcano? You bet they are. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is directed by franchise regular Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Billy Ray, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. The film is in theaters in one whole entire year; it arrives November 20, 2026.[end-mark] The post The Second Quarter Quell Begins in the Trailer for <i>The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping</i> appeared first on Reactor.