Summary
- New cast members for The Hunger Games prequel announced: Maya Hawke as Wiress and Kelvin Harrison Jr. As Beetee.
- The prequel, "Sunrise on the Reaping," explores Haymitch's past as a District 12 tribute during the 50th Hunger Games.
- The film will delve into Wiress and Beetee's backstory and relationships with Haymitch as mentors during the Games.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping has just reaped two fresh cast members. The adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ second prequel novel to the Hunger Games trilogy has been making exciting casting announcements as it brings back younger versions of familiar characters from the books. And it looks like they’ve found their young Wiress and Beetee.
Set in Panem, 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping begins on the morning of a reaping and tells the story of a young Haymitch Abernathy when he is picked as a District 12 tribute in the 50th Hunger Games. In the course of the Games, he crosses paths with victors Wiress and Beetee as they turn mentors for the Second Quarter Quell.
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As reported by Deadline, Maya Hawke of Stranger Things will play Wiress, a role reprised by Amanda Plummer in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. And Mufasa: The Lion King actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. Will play Beetee Latier, played by Jeffrey Wright in Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2. Hawke and Harrison Jr. Join a cast that includes Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy (played by Woody Harrelson in the original films), Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, and Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee (played in the trilogy by Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Fans will remember these characters from Catching Fire, when the 75th Hunger Games are designated as the Third Quarter Quell. As victors, Katniss and Peeta (with the latter taking their mentor Haymitch's place) are reaped again as tributes. They are joined by other victors, including District 3’s Wiress and Beetee. While Beetee is a tech genius, the other tributes call Wiress “Nuts” because of her neurotic behavior, a result of the trauma she suffered during the events of the Second Quarter Quell.
In Sunrise on the Reaping, Wiress is different from the woman Katniss and Peeta meet in Catching Fire. She is a smart woman, and as victor of the 49th Hunger Games, assigned to mentor the tributes of District 12, including 16-year-old Haymitch, since Lucy Baird’s disappearance leaves them with no victors of their own to mentor them. Fans will finally find out what happened during these Games that wrecked her.
For Beetee, the disaster has already struck. As a victor of the 34th Hunger Games, he has to mentor his son Ampert Latier, who has been reaped as a tribute for the Quarter Quell to punish Beetee for his actions, of course, orchestrated by Coriolanus Snow. The film will reveal the backstory of how and when Beteee joined the revolution.
Published on March 18 this year, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is the fifth book in the series, the second prequel after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the sixth film in the franchise. Filmmaker Francis Lawrence, who has directed each one of them since Catching Fire, returns to direct this one from a screenplay adapted by Billy Ray. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is slated to release on November 20, 2026.
- Created by
- Suzanne Collins
- First Film
- The Hunger Games