Reveal — CinemaCon logo teaser
Teaser · Lionsgate Movies · 2 April 2025
The film
Film 6 of 6 · Prequel era In cinemas 19 Nov Australia first
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping
“Break the machine. Change the games.”
- Australian release
- 19 November 2026
- US release
- 20 November 2026
- Classification (AU)
- Not yet classified
- Runtime
- Not announced
- Director
- Francis Lawrence
- AU distributor
- Roadshow Films
§ 01
Twenty-four years before Katniss Everdeen volunteers for her sister, a sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy wakes on the morning of the reaping for the Fiftieth Hunger Games. It is the Second Quarter Quell, and the Capitol has decreed a twist: every district must send double the usual tributes, putting forty-eight children in the arena instead of twenty-four. Torn from his family and from Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch is thrown into a Games engineered as spectacle by a Capitol machine at the height of its confidence. Francis Lawrence returns to direct, with Sydney-born Joseph Zada in the role Woody Harrelson originated.
§ 02
Sunrise on the Reaping news The Australian angle
On the ground here
- The lead is Australian. Joseph Zada was born in Sydney on 21 July 2005 and turned 21 this month. He was cast in April 2025 after what Lionsgate described as an exhaustive global search — co-president Erin Westerman said the leads stood out 'not just for their talent, but for the emotional truth'.
- Zada is of Afghan and Aboriginal descent through his paternal great-grandmother, who was of Barkandji heritage. His paternal grandfather worked as a radiographer in remote Aboriginal communities and his father was born in Darwin. International coverage has largely skipped this.
- He comes from an Australian screen family: his father Jeremy Cumpston acted in All Saints, his mother Jessica Brentnall executive produced Mr Inbetween, and his half-brother Hal Cumpston gave him his first film role in Bilched (2019).
- Australian credits before this: Bilched (2019), The Speedway Murders (2023), Total Control (2024) and Invisible Boys (2025, Stan Original). Internationally, We Were Liars (2025) and East of Eden (2026).
- He won Breakthrough Actor of the Year at the GQ Australia Men of the Year Awards on 1 April 2026, and was nominated at the 2026 AACTA Awards for Favourite Australian Actor.
- Australia gets it first: 19 November 2026, a day ahead of the US, listed by HOYTS, Event Cinemas and Palace Cinemas. Roadshow Films is running the AU campaign under the line 'Break the machine. Change the games.'
- Still unclassified in Australia. All AU chains show CTC as at 30 July 2026. The previous five films all landed M — whether this one holds that line is a live question and a genuine AU news beat to own when the decision lands.
- No AU presale tickets yet. HOYTS lists it Coming Soon with no ticketing; Event and Palace show no sessions.
- The five-film September re-release is a Fathom Entertainment event and appears US-only. No Australian chain has announced an equivalent — either a story about why Australia misses out, or a pitch to Roadshow and the chains for an AU marathon.
- No Australian premiere, junket or Zada homecoming has been announced. Given he is the Sydney-born lead of a tentpole that opens in Australia first, it is a plausible ask — but it is not on the record.
§ 03
Who's in it
Cast
20 principal roles · 1 Australian, marked
Haymitch Abernathy
Joseph Zada
Australian — born in Sydney, 21 July 2005. Cast April 2025 after a global search.
Lenore Dove Baird
Whitney Peak
Announced alongside Zada, April 2025
Maysilee Donner
Mckenna Grace
President Coriolanus Snow
Ralph Fiennes
Third actor to play Snow after Donald Sutherland and Tom Blyth
Plutarch Heavensbee
Jesse Plemons
Role originated by Philip Seymour Hoffman
Effie Trinket
Elle Fanning
Role originated by Elizabeth Banks
Caesar Flickerman
Kieran Culkin
Role originated by Stanley Tucci
Drusilla Sickle
Glenn Close
Wiress
Maya Hawke
Role originated by Amanda Plummer
Beetee Latier
Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Role originated by Jeffrey Wright
Mags Flanagan
Lili Taylor
Role originated by Lynn Cohen
Wyatt Callow
Ben Wang
Magno Stift
Billy Porter
Louella McCoy
Molly McCann
Ampert Latier
Percy Daggs IV
Silka Sharp
Laura Marcus
Willamae Abernathy
Kara Tointon
Burdock Everdeen
Scot Greenan
Katniss's father
Asterid March
Grace Ackary
Katniss's mother
Proserpina Trinket
Iris Apatow
§ 04
Behind it
Crew and credits
- Directed by
- Francis Lawrence
- Screenplay
- Billy Ray
- Based on
- Sunrise on the Reaping (2025) by Suzanne Collins
- Music
- James Newton Howard
- Cinematography
- Jo Willems
- Produced by
- Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Francis Lawrence
- Studio
- Lionsgate
- Australian distributor
- Roadshow Films
- Budget
- US$185 million (reported, not officially confirmed)
§ 05
Handle with care
Reported but not confirmed
None of the following is official. It is listed here because it is widely reported, and separated from the record above because it has not been confirmed.
- Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson cameos. Reported by The InSneider and subsequently by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety in December 2025, and listed as cast by most aggregators — but THR noted that Lionsgate did not respond to a request for comment, and no official confirmation exists.
- A Woody Harrelson return. Fan speculation with no trade or official sourcing.
- Runtime. Not announced by Lionsgate or listed by any exhibitor.
- Australian classification. No ACB decision published; all AU chains show CTC.
- Any AU premiere, junket or Zada promotional appearance. Nothing announced.
- Australian participation in the September five-film re-release.
- AU presale on-sale date.
§ 06
The gallery
Official stills
20 images · Lionsgate / Roadshow Films
Lionsgate / Roadshow Films
§ 07
Watch
Official videos
8 uploads, each verified against its official channel
§ 08
How it was made
Production notes
- Francis Lawrence returns for his fourth Hunger Games film, after Catching Fire, both Mockingjay parts and The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
- Principal photography ran from late July 2025 to 28 November 2025, shooting in Spain — Somiedo and Teverga in Asturias — and Berlin.
- The production returned to Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, receiving €800,000 from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and shooting under Germany's 30% production cost rebate.
- Produced by Color Force for Lionsgate, with Suzanne Collins credited as an executive producer, continuing her direct involvement in the adaptations.
- The adaptation turnaround is unusually fast: the novel was published in March 2025 and the film releases in November 2026 — roughly eighteen months.
- Legacy recasting is the defining production story. Seven roles originated in earlier films are being played by new actors, including two — Plutarch and Mags — whose original performers have died.
- James Newton Howard returns as composer and Jo Willems as cinematographer.
- The 20 November 2025 teaser drew 109 million views in 24 hours, the second-biggest trailer launch in Lionsgate's history.
§ 09
The record
Key dates
-
Lionsgate sets a late-2026 theatrical release for the prequel.
-
Suzanne Collins's novel published by Scholastic.
-
Logo teaser revealed at CinemaCon.
-
Joseph Zada cast as Haymitch Abernathy and Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird.
-
Principal photography begins.
-
First teaser trailer and poster released, exactly one year out from the US date.
-
Principal photography wraps.
-
Joseph Zada named Breakthrough Actor of the Year at the GQ Australia Men of the Year Awards.
-
Full official trailer released alongside new poster and stills.
-
All five existing films return to US cinemas via Fathom, each with a different exclusive sneak peek. No AU equivalent announced.
-
Australian theatrical release.
-
US theatrical release, including IMAX.
§ 10
All coverage From the desk
Latest on Sunrise on the Reaping
Rerelease · AU
All five Hunger Games films return to cinemas in September
One film a night from 3 September, with a Sunrise on the Reaping sneak peek attached in the US. We're confirming whether Australian sessions get the footage.
Cast
Who is Joseph Zada? The Sydney kid carrying the biggest franchise film of 2026
Six years ago he was in a low-budget film his dad directed and his brother wrote. In November he leads a $3.4 billion franchise. The career, the family, and why this casting is a bigger deal in Australia than anywhere else.
Production
Where Sunrise on the Reaping was filmed — and why Panem has moved to Europe
A decommissioned German steelworks stands in for District 12. A protected Spanish mountain range is the arena. The franchise that built Panem in North Carolina now shoots almost entirely on the other side of the Atlantic — and there's a reason.
Sources
- HOYTS
- Event Cinemas
- Palace Cinemas
- Variety Australia — Joseph Zada
- Deadline — official trailer
- Fathom Entertainment — five-film event
- Wikipedia
Stills and key art © Lionsgate / Roadshow Films, reproduced editorially with credit. Image data sourced via TMDB; THGAustralia uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Spotted an error? Tell us.
