The odds are finally in our favour. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 20 November 2026, bringing Suzanne Collins’ Haymitch prequel to the big screen less than two years after the book hit shelves. If you are planning a trip to the cinema, or a catch-up marathon beforehand, here is everything you need to know about the Sunrise on the Reaping release date, the cast, the story and how to watch the Hunger Games movies in order.
Sunrise on the Reaping release date in the UK
Lionsgate has set the Sunrise on the Reaping release date for 20 November 2026 in the UK and Ireland, the same day it opens in the United States. It is a cinema-only release to begin with, and it will also screen in IMAX. That date is a neat bit of timing, too: it lands exactly 11 years after Mockingjay – Part 2 closed out the original story.
There is no confirmed streaming date yet. Previous Hunger Games films have usually reached digital rental a couple of months after their cinema run, so a home release in early 2027 would be in line with the franchise’s track record, but nothing has been announced.
What is Sunrise on the Reaping about?
Somiedo Natural Park in Asturias, Spain, where the arena scenes were filmed. Photo: Carmenmoran, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The film adapts Collins’ 2025 novel of the same name and is set 24 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteers as tribute. It follows a teenage Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 victor who later becomes Katniss and Peeta’s hard-drinking mentor, as he is reaped for the 50th Hunger Games.
That year is the Second Quarter Quell, and the Capitol doubles the number of tributes, sending 48 children into the arena instead of the usual 24. Fans of the books know Haymitch’s victory came at a terrible price, and this Haymitch prequel finally shows how the bitter, broken man we met in the first film came to be.
Sunrise on the Reaping cast
The Sunrise on the Reaping cast mixes rising stars with some very big names, several of them playing younger versions of characters from the original films.
- Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the original films)
- Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch’s girlfriend
- Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, a fellow District 12 tribute
- Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow (previously Donald Sutherland)
- Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket (previously Elizabeth Banks)
- Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee (previously Philip Seymour Hoffman)
- Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman (previously Stanley Tucci)
- Maya Hawke as Wiress
- Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee Latier
- Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan
- Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle
Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson have also been reported as returning as Katniss and Peeta, which is a nice nod for long-time fans. Francis Lawrence, who directed every Hunger Games film from Catching Fire onwards, is back behind the camera.
Hunger Games movies in order: release order
Berlin’s former Tempelhof Airport, used for Mockingjay and again for Sunrise on the Reaping. Photo: Savh, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
If you want to watch the Hunger Games movies in order of release, this is the sequence:
- The Hunger Games (2012)
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
- The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
- The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026)
Hunger Games movies in order: story order
Watching in chronological order changes things. The two prequels jump to the front, which makes the original four feel like the final chapter of Panem’s story rather than the start.
- The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes – the 10th Hunger Games, with a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth)
- Sunrise on the Reaping – the 50th Hunger Games and Haymitch’s story
- The Hunger Games – the 74th Games
- Catching Fire – the 75th Games, the Third Quarter Quell
- Mockingjay – Part 1
- Mockingjay – Part 2
Our tip: if you only have time for two before the new film, watch The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Haymitch is at his best in both, and you will spot plenty of the threads the prequel picks up.
Is Sunrise on the Reaping worth seeing in cinemas?
Sunrise on the Reaping is getting an IMAX release. Pictured: the IMAX screen at Millennium Point, Birmingham. Photo: Erebus555, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
All the signs point to yes. The franchise has always been built for the big screen, the arena sequences are the main event, and an IMAX release suggests Lionsgate is treating this as one of its biggest films of the year. With the Christmas schedule packed with blockbusters, the 20 November slot also gives it a few weeks to itself before December’s heavy hitters arrive.
If you enjoy a bleak dystopia, it is worth looking at our pick of the best horror Netflix shows for something darker to stream while you wait.
Quick facts
- UK release date: 20 November 2026
- Director: Francis Lawrence
- Based on: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (2025)
- Distributor: Lionsgate
- Lead: Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy