Here’s How Sunrise on the Reaping Will Bring Back The Hunger Games’ Katniss and Peeta 

The following contains major spoilers for the Suzanne Collins novel Sunrise on the Reaping.

It’s official: Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will be reprising their roles as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in the forthcoming The Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping. And while the studio is at least attempting to be vague about the reason for their characters’ return, book readers already know exactly what’s going on — and that it will likely offer up some satisfying closure to their characters’ arcs in post-war Panem. 

Suzanne Collins’ novel primarily serves as an origin story for District 12 Hunger Games victor Haymitch Abernathy, chronicling his win during the Second Quarter Quell and complicating much of the original trilogy’s version of what happened. (Propaganda! It’s a thing in every universe.) But the novel also contains an epilogue, set after the events of Mockingjay, that offers not only a glimpse of a bittersweet post-war peace for Haymitch but also for the two young competitors he mentored a quarter-century later. 

In the flashforward, Haymitch reflects on his lost love, Lenore Dove, and the way he ultimately fulfilled his promise to her by helping bring an end to the Hunger Games (though it took much longer than either likely expected). He says she still comes to him in visions — Lenore is part of the Covey clan, so this woo-woo style weirdness isn’t as bizarre as it sounds — and has grown older alongside him in his mind. “She says I can’t come to her yet. I have to look after my family,” he says, in case you were ever unsure about how much Katniss and Peeta have come to mean to him. 

Though he does not initially want to take part in the memorial book that Katniss and Peeta are putting together after the war, Haymitch ultimately starts to open up to them about all those he loved and lost along the way, from his brother Sid to his fellow tributes Maysilee Donner and Louella McCoy, and even Katniss’s father, Burdock. And he finally tells the story of his relationship with Lenore and the tragic way they were torn apart from one another by President Snow. Afterwards, Katniss brings him goose eggs to hatch, Peeta builds him an incubator to raise the goslings, and he wanders the Meadow with them,  just as Lenore did so long ago, raising the creatures in her memory. It’s a deeply bittersweet but strangely satisfying ending for Haymitch’s character and a warm affirmation of the lasting relationship among The Hunger Games’ central trio. 

Of course, no one involved with the Sunrise on the Reaping film has yet confirmed that Woody Harrelson, who originally played Haymitch, will be back to reprise his role in this prequel. But it’s clearly happening — there’s no reason to bring back Lawrence and Hutcherson without him, and the teaser trailer ends with what is obviously a Harrelson voiceover. So consider this an early warning to make sure you pack some tissues, as it’s the sort of reunion that’s unlikely to leave a dry eye anywhere in the theater.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be released on November 20, 2026. 

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