11 months before the release of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, Jennifer Lawrence addresses whether she's going to reprise her role as Katniss Everdeen. The actress starred in the YA dystopian film series since 2012, when she played the lead role in all four films, alongside her co-star, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark. While The Hollywood Reporter reported last year that the duo are returning to the franchise for the prequel, Lawrence has since addressed the latest casting news in a recent interview.
During her appearance on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Oscar-winning actress was asked whether she would catch up with The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, as Sunrise on the Reaping is currently in production. According to the actress, she hinted that two have already caught up, thus increasing the odds that she has reprised her role for the upcoming feature. While she didn't give a full verbal confirmation, Lawrence did tell Horowitz to watch the movie, and realized that news of her return had already been reported last year.
According to the books, Katniss and Peeta make an appearance during the epilogue, where the two are with Haymitch after the events of the third Hunger Games novel, Mockingjay, as their former mentor tells them he's ready to share his past.
What is The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping about?
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is the second prequel novel in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and the sixth Hunger Games movie to be released. The story takes place during the second Quarter Quell of the Hunger Games, which featured a special rule just for this year's games: all districts must provide twice as many tributes.
One of the tributes is Haymitch Abernathy, played by Joseph Zada. Some of the returning characters in this film include Plutarch Heavensbee (Jesse Plemons), Caesar Flickerman (Kieran Culkin), Effie Trinket (Elle Fanning), Wires (Maya Hawke), Beete (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), Mags Glanagan (Lili Taylor), and President Snow (Ralph Fiennes), Others starring in this feature includes McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Molly McCann as Louella McCoy, Percy Daggs IV as Ampert Latier, and Glenn Close as Drusilla Sickle.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping debuts in theaters on November 20, 2026.