Lionsgate has released the first official teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the prequel which will hit theaters one year from today. Based on the recent novel by The Hunger Games maestro Suzanne Collins, the movie stars Mckenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Plemons, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, Joseph Zada, and more.
A follow-up to 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the movie continues to tell the story of how the world of Panem descended into the bleak and bloody world of The Hunger Games. Sunrise on the Reaping sold over 1.5 million copies in the first week of its hardcover release, making it the biggest opening yet for Collins’s long-running dystopian franchise.
Per the logline from Lionsgate, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on 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.
“Suzanne Collins is a master storyteller and our creative north star,” said Lionsgate chief Adam Fogelson when the film was announced. “We couldn’t be more fortunate than to be guided and trusted by a collaborator whose talent and imagination are so consistently brilliant. We know Hunger Games fans worldwide will be spellbound by where Suzanne has focused this next extraordinary story. The Second Quarter Quell is legendary and looms large over the history of the Games, even into the time of Katniss Everdeen a quarter-century later. Like fans around the globe, we are eagerly anticipating this exciting return to Panem.”
“From the beginning, Lionsgate has been a wonderful home and partner for the Hunger Games franchise, and I’m very excited to be collaborating with Adam and the team as we bring this next story to theaters in 2026,” said Collins.
To date, there have been five Hunger Games films (four adapting the original trilogy of books and one for Songbirds and Snakes), which have collectively earned $3.3 billion. Lionsgate, whose Now You See Me: Now You Don’t won last weekend’s box office, has big plans for 2026 and 2027, with sequels to Greenland and The Passion of the Christ as well as the anticipated Michael Jackson biopic Michael on deck.
The film is directed by Francis Lawrence, from a screenplay by Billy Ray.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is expected to arrive in theaters & IMAX November 20, 2026.
