RUMOR: Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Casts Haymitch Abernathy

The next Hunger Games film, Sunrise on the Reaping , is rumored to have cast its lead role.

That goes to Challengers star Mike Faist, who’ll play a young Haymitch Abernathy, according to SFFGazette .

Faist played Art Donaldson to great acclaim in 2024 sport drama Challengers , and also appeared in The Bikeriders and West Side Story .

Based on Suzanne Collins Hunger Games prequel novel, Sunrise on the Reaping tells a story set 40 years after the last movie in the Hunger Games universe, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes . That means it’s set roughly 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games.

The Sunrise on the Reaping novel has not been written yet, however. It’s set to arrive in bookstores on March 18, 2025. As for the film’s director, that’s likely to be Francis Lawrence, who directed the second cinematic adaption with 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , as well as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 , and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes .

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theatres November 20, 2026.

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