Sunrise On The Reaping: How Does Haymitch End Up In The Hunger Games?

In the original "Hunger Games" books by Suzanne Collins — which were adapted into a film franchise in 2012 that's still ongoing to this day — we learn that Haymitch Abernathy, the only living District 12 victor of the titular Games played by Woody Harrelson, competed in a very "special" version of the Games. Every 25 years, to punish the districts for the rebellion that took place and started this evil tradition in the first place, there's a particularly punishing iteration of the Games called the Quarter Quell. Because Haymitch competes in the 50th Games, his Quarter Quell's twist is that the number of child tributes who fight to the death is doubled, sending 48 kids into the arena instead of 24.

We know, before reading Haymitch's origin story "Sunrise on the Reaping" — which is already set to be adapted for the big screen — that he's a tribute, but in Collins' 2025 book, we learn how, and it's awful. Haymitch's name is not chosen in the traditional way. As the book describes, the District 12 liaison for the Capitol, Drusilla, chooses one boy's name, Wyatt Callow, and when she picks the second one, it's ... not Haymitch. "Drusilla peers at the final name," the book reads. "And boy number two is ... Woodbine Chance!"

Then we get Haymitch's perspective, where he watches as Woodbine makes an impulsive decision. "I can see Woodbine, who's a few rows ahead of me, projected up on the screen," Haymitch tells the reader. "He makes as if to follow Wyatt, but then his gray eyes flash defiantly, and he whips around and sprints for an alley. His kinfolk shout encouragement, and bodies instinctively block the Peacekeepers. Just when I'm thinking he might make it — all those Chance kids run like greased lightning — a shot rings out from the Justice Building rooftop, and the back of Woodbine's head explodes."

Okay, so how does Haymitch come into it? His girlfriend, Lenore Dove, tries to protect Woodbine's mother, who's attempting to get to her son's body ... and when Haymitch interferes on Lenore's behalf, Drusilla clocks him and gets a horrifying idea.

After the scuffle over Woodbine's body involving Lenore and the boy's mother, Drusilla is, to put it lightly, pissed. The reapings, as we know from the original "Hunger Games" trilogy, are televised, and one of her tributes just got murdered on camera. To rectify the situation, Drusilla, who has Haymitch in her line of sight, decides that he'll be the next tribute, and they'll simply stage it to look like he was chosen all along. After asking his name and writing it down — struggling to pronounce Abernathy — Drusilla and another Capitol stooge, Plutarch Heavensbee (played in the films by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman), Drusilla fakes Haymitch's reaping. "Drusilla pretends to draw a name," the book recounts through Haymitch's eyes. The passage continues:

"'And the first gentleman who gets to accompany the ladies is ... Wyatt Callow!' In some strange replay, I watch Wyatt, as impassive as before, go by and obediently take his place on the stage. Drusilla's hand hovers over the ball, then removes a slip with surgical precision. 'And our second boy will be ... Haymitch Abernathy!' I just stand there in case this is a bad dream and I'm about to wake up in my own bed. Everything's all wrong. Minutes ago, I dodged this bullet. I was headed home, then to the woods, safe for another year."

After that, the cameras pan towards Haymitch, attempting to make a spectacle out of the fact that, at this moment, he believes he's just been sentenced to die. True to form, he and Lenore remain stoic: 

"'Haymitch?' Drusilla repeats, looking straight at me. My face fills the screen over the stage. My feet begin to move. I see them cut to Lenore Dove, who has a hand pressed against her mouth. She isn't crying, so Plutarch won't get his tearful good-bye. Not from her and not from me. They will not use our tears for their entertainment."

Throughout "Sunrise on the Reaping," we learn a lot of heartbreaking details about Haymitch's life that were only hinted at in the original books. We know, from Suzanne Collins' trilogy, that after Haymitch manipulates the arena — he wins the Games by using a force field to make a weapon rebound at his only surviving opponent — his family and loved ones back in District 12 are murdered by the Capitol. The Haymitch we see in the original books and games relies on alcohol to get him through each day. One truly awful thing we learn in "Sunrise on the Reaping," besides that Haymitch was never supposed to compete in the Games at all, is that before he suffered in his Games, he didn't even drink.

Later in the book, during a private meeting with Plutarch Heavensbee, Haymitch makes an interesting admission when offered a beverage. "Plutarch pours himself a glass of amber liquid. 'Can I offer you something?'" Haymitch responds in a frankly uncharacteristic way based on what we know about his future:

"I don't drink." Professional curiosity wins out, though — I'm a bootlegger, after all — and I cross to examine the booze. What we call white liquor's as clear as water, but his bar boasts every color of the rainbow. I don't know if these have been dyed or aged or mixed with other things, like herbs. It's all white liquor, only dressed up. The bottles have little silver nameplates on chains. Vodka. Rye. Cognac.

Haymitch's story in "Sunrise on the Reaping" is gut-wrenching for so many reasons, and these are just a few of them. The film adaptation of the novel is set to be released on November 20, 2026.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).