Hunger Games Sunrise on the Reaping Third Trailer Teases Young Haymitch

Lionsgate dropped a third trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on Sept. 16, spotlighting Joseph Zada’s young Haymitch Abernathy, colorful arena creatures, and a public slow-clap confrontation with Ralph Fiennes’ President Snow. The clip opens on a tribute parade choked with purple and yellow smoke as Woody Harrelson’s older Haymitch warns that “nobody ever wins the games,” only survives, Deadline reported.

Directed by Francis Lawrence from a Billy Ray screenplay, the film revisits Panem 24 years before the original trilogy for the 50th Hunger Games—the Second Quarter Quell, with “twice the number of tributes.” Viewers glimpse Glenn Close’s Drusilla, Kieran Culkin’s Caesar Flickerman, Jesse Plemons’ Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, and McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner amid butterfly shocks and crimson bird attacks. Snow tells Haymitch, “These are my games. How you die is all up to me.”

The A.V. Club noted the trailer’s Catching Fire-era echo and the splashy arena set pieces that lean into Suzanne Collins’ 2025 novel. The ensemble also includes Elle Fanning, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak, Ben Wang, and Lili Taylor. Sunrise on the Reaping sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first week—the biggest debut in Collins’ series—while the film franchise has grossed more than $3.4 billion globally across five movies.

Theatrical release is locked for Nov. 20, 2026. For other Hollywood trailer heat on iShook Daily this week, see Sacrifice’s Netflix Oct. 16 trailer and casting chatter around Brie Larson’s One Italian Summer.

With Zada’s Haymitch storing fury for revolution and Snow staring down a mocking ovation, Lionsgate is betting the Quarter Quell prequel can reopen Panem’s biggest box-office chapter heading into the November holiday corridor.