Nearly a decade after moviegoers last saw Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark find fragile peace in District 12, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are officially heading back to Panem. The pair will reprise their roles in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the sixth film in Lionsgate’s dystopian blockbuster franchise and the second prequel based on Suzanne Collins’ novels.

Image Illustration. Photo by Alex Gudino on Unsplash

A Surprise Return in a Prequel World

News of Lawrence and Hutcherson’s comeback broke this week, with multiple outlets reporting that the Oscar winner and her long‑time co‑star will appear in Sunrise on the Reaping in what is widely expected to be a flash‑forward framing or epilogue, since the film’s main storyline unfolds decades before the events of the original trilogy.

Entertainment Weekly notes that the prequel is set 24 years before the 74th Hunger Games, focusing on the infamous 50th Games—also known as the Second Quarter Quell—when Haymitch Abernathy first outwitted the Capitol’s arena. Katniss and Peeta, who canonically would not yet be born, are therefore expected to bookend the narrative rather than drive it. (Entertainment Weekly report)

From Page to Screen: Collins’ Second Prequel

The film adapts Suzanne Collins’ 2025 novel Sunrise on the Reaping, her second prequel to the original Hunger Games trilogy after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Published by Scholastic on March 18, 2025, the novel revisits Panem on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games and explores themes of propaganda, political control and the ways a spectacle of violence shapes a society under authoritarian rule.

In June 2024, Lionsgate announced it would adapt the book, confirming a new film titled The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping for theatrical release on November 20, 2026 in North America. The studio’s announcement framed the project as part of a franchise that has already generated more than $3.3 billion at the global box office across five previous films.

Francis Lawrence Returns to a $3.3 Billion Franchise

Francis Lawrence, who directed every Hunger Games movie from Catching Fire onward, returns to helm Sunrise on the Reaping, working from a screenplay by Billy Ray. Producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson are once again steering the project through their Color Force banner, underlining Lionsgate’s commitment to a continuity of tone and world‑building that helped turn Collins’ novels into one of modern cinema’s defining YA franchises.

According to Lionsgate’s 2024 announcement, the first five films—The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay – Part 1, Mockingjay – Part 2 and 2023 prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes—have collectively earned more than $3.3 billion worldwide, cementing The Hunger Games as one of the most lucrative literary adaptations in recent Hollywood history.

Box Office Legacy and Franchise Momentum

The original 2012 film, led by Lawrence and Hutcherson, was a breakout commercial event. It earned about $695 million globally, including $408 million in the United States and Canada, making it Lionsgate’s highest‑grossing release and one of the biggest non‑summer openers on record. (box office data)

Its sequels pushed the franchise higher still. Catching Fire became the top‑grossing entry with roughly $865 million worldwide, while the two Mockingjay films each cleared more than $640 million globally. By contrast, 2023’s Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes finished its run at around $300–350 million worldwide—still profitable on a $100 million budget but notably lower than the original tetralogy’s haul.

Who’s in ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ — and Where Katniss Fits In

While Lawrence and Hutcherson’s return has dominated headlines, Sunrise on the Reaping is, at its core, Haymitch Abernathy’s story. The film introduces newcomer Joseph Zada as a teenage Haymitch, the future mentor who will one day guide Katniss and Peeta through their own Games. He is joined by an ensemble that includes Jesse Plemons, Ralph Fiennes, Mckenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak and others, with Fiennes portraying a younger President Snow.

Because the Second Quarter Quell takes place 24 years before Katniss volunteers for her sister, fans and commentators alike expect Lawrence and Hutcherson to appear in a narrative frame, flash‑forward or epilogue set decades later. Reports from outlets including People magazine point out that their characters also surface briefly in the closing pages of Collins’ novel, suggesting the film may mirror that structure on screen.

Why Bringing Back Katniss and Peeta Matters

Strategically, reuniting Lawrence and Hutcherson is a clear signal that Lionsgate wants to reconnect with the emotional core that drew a global audience to the original series. The Hunger Games helped propel Lawrence to A‑list status and turned her into one of the defining faces of 2010s blockbuster cinema; by 2015 she had already won an Academy Award and led multiple $500‑million‑plus earners. (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences biography)

For Hutcherson, whose recent profile has risen again thanks to the box‑office success of horror hit Five Nights at Freddy’s, revisiting Peeta offers a chance to bridge his early YA stardom with his current, more eclectic career. According to reports, the actor has described returning to the franchise as “a dream come true,” underscoring the enduring personal and professional pull of the series.

A Test of Franchise Durability in a Crowded IP Landscape

Commercially, Sunrise on the Reaping will test whether nostalgia and renewed star power can lift a decade‑old franchise in a theatrical market crowded with legacy sequels and reboots. The 2023 prequel, while ultimately profitable, delivered the lowest box‑office total in the series and a more muted critical response than the early films, with a Rotten Tomatoes score in the mid‑60s compared with the 80–90 percent range for the first two installments. (franchise score comparison)

Yet the underlying brand remains powerful. Scholastic reports that more than 100 million copies of Collins’ Hunger Games novels are in print and digital formats worldwide, with translations in over 50 languages, giving Sunrise on the Reaping a deep built‑in readership even before the film’s marketing machine fully ramps up.

Conclusion: Closing the Circle While Looking Back

When The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping reaches theaters on November 20, 2026, it will arrive as both a new beginning and a continuation: a chance to expand the mythology of Panem through Haymitch’s brutal coming‑of‑age, and, with Lawrence and Hutcherson back on screen, an opportunity to close the circle on a story that helped define a generation of young adult cinema.

Whether audiences embrace another trip to the arena may hinge less on spectacle than on what has always made The Hunger Games resonate: the human cost of survival, the scars left by systemic violence—and the enduring power of characters like Katniss and Peeta to turn a televised bloodsport into a story about resistance, memory and, however fragile, hope.