Sunrise On The Reaping Offers A Thrilling New Look At Beloved Hunger Games Characters

On March 18, 2025, author Suzanne Collins expanded the universe of her original "Hunger Games" stories even further with "Sunrise on the Reaping," a novel that gives fans more insight into two specific things. First, we learn about Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 victor seen in the original books — and played by Woody Harrelson in the original film franchise — and his life and time in the Games. Second, we experience the second Quarter Quell, which added an extra layer of trauma by doubling the number of child tributes from 24 to 48, through his eyes. The book is already set to get its own film adaptation, so before long, we'll get to see Haymitch's story on the big screen.

Haymitch, as we know from "The Hunger Games," ultimately wins the 50th Games, but what happens to him along the way? Quite a lot, honestly — and he also meets some important figures that readers and audiences will recognize from "The Hunger Games," "Catching Fire," and "Mockingjay." Before we get started, I will say this: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the central pair of characters and District 12 tributes played in the films by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, are mentioned in an epilogue, but that doesn't really count, so for the purposes of this list, I'm only counting people who have a real effect on the plot of the specific story told in "Sunrise on the Reaping." From Capitol officials to the evil president of Panem to some of Haymitch's closest mentors, here are some of the familiar characters we meet thanks to Haymitch's perspective in "Sunrise on the Reaping," many or all of whom will, presumably, appear in the forthcoming film adaptation one way or another. 

Obviously, the most prominent returning character in "Sunrise on the Reaping" is Haymitch Abernathy himself, though he's younger in this novel and hasn't yet been subjected to the horrors he witnesses during the 50th annual Hunger Games. When we first meet a young Haymitch, he's decently content with his life in District 12, taking care of his mother and younger brother, Sid, by bootlegging illegal alcohol in the impoverished district. (A startling moment in the book reveals that Haymitch, who develops a dependency on alcohol after the Games, never drank beforehand despite working to distribute liquor.) He's also in love with a young girl from the Covey, Lenore Dove; we first learn about the musical and somewhat rebellious nomads known as the Covey in the other "Hunger Games" prequel "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes."

Haymitch is still pretty brash and misanthropic as a teenager, but the version of him we eventually see in the books and films is much darker and more troubled than the teen we meet who loves his family and Lenore Dove and is determined to return home to them after the Games. He does, but as we know from the original stories, after he uses the arena's force field to take down his final competitor — exposing the inner workings of the Capitol's technology — his family and Lenore Dove are killed by the Capitol in retribution, creating the man we see mentoring Katniss. 

We've now seen President Coriolanus Snow in two different "Hunger Games" stories portrayed by two different performers. In the original films, he's played by the late, great Donald Sutherland — who passed away in June of 2024 — and in "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," he's played by Tom Blyth as a young man trying to make it in the Capitol despite coming from the largely disgraced Snow family. Snow, to put it super bluntly, is always evil, even if he shows a few signs of humanity in his younger years throughout "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes." He's extraordinarily cunning, utterly cutthroat, and will stop at nothing to gain and hold onto power, even if that means brutally murdering others.

The Snow we see in "Sunrise on the Reaping," though, is bleak. Haymitch is invited to meet the President after one of his fellow District 12 tributes, Louella McCoy, is killed in a stampede during some of the pre-Games festivities, and what he sees is not great. (Haymitch only got the President's attention by stealing another chariot and carrying Louella's body right up to Snow.) 

"I turn and see President Snow leaning against the doorway, wiping his brow with a hand-kerchief," Haymitch narrates. "Once again, I'm rattled by being in his presence. The power of his position. The record of his cruelty. Evil in the flesh. Was my crime really so great that it requires a personal meeting? Especially when, on closer observation, he's clearly unwell. Perspiring and breathless and white as a sheet. His regal bearing abandoned as he hunches over his gut. For once, despite his cosmetic treatments, he looks his 58 years." Snow is, apparently, enduring either a bout of food poisoning or straight-up poisoning, so the glimpse we get of him is grotesque ... which feels somewhat appropriate, given that he's extremely foul.

After being unfairly dragged into the Games and taken to the Capitol for training — and for the flashy pre-Games festivities staged by the Capitol each year — Haymitch starts to meet his competitors, including a young boy from District 3 named Ampert. As the two get to know each other, Haymitch is understandably baffled by Ampert, saying that he can't wait to "tell his dad" various things because Haymitch feels certain that Ampert won't make it out of the Games alive. As it turns out, Ampert's dad Beetee Lavier is part of the games; as a former District 3 victor who pissed off the Capitol, he's forced to serve as a mentor during the Second Quarter Quell, where he'll almost certainly see his son brutally killed.

Beetee, played in the films by Jeffrey Wright, is a character that we originally met in "Catching Fire," which sees the Third Quarter Quell — in which only previous victors are eligible for reaping, which is a move specifically meant to punish Katniss for devising a stunt with poisoned berries at the end of the 74th Games. (Rather than kill Peeta and win, the two threatened to eat the berries and leave the Capitol without a victor unless they can both win). We learn in both "Sunrise on the Reaping" and "Catching Fire" that Beetee is a technology expert, and in both, he encourages younger players — specifically, Haymitch and then Katniss — to manipulate the arena's technology to help them win and even damage the Capitol in the process. 

Readers who pick up "Sunrise on the Reaping" might be surprised that Plutarch Heavensbee, who becomes the Head Gamemaker in "Catching Fire" and is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, plays such a big role in Haymitch's story, but he's actually vital to the plot ... and we now know that, years before he helped the secret rebels in District 13 overthrow the Capitol, he was quietly attempting his own rebellions from inside the Capitol itself. In "Sunrise on the Reaping," he's a cameraman present at the District 12 reaping and takes a shine to Haymitch, and when the two head to the Capitol, Plutarch even engineers a phone call between Haymitch and Lenore Dove so that he can say goodbye.

Still, alongside Beetee, Plutarch is determined that Haymitch literally flood the arena by destroying a water tank that will ruin the entire space and all of its violent technology, but Haymitch does frequently (and understandably) wonder if he can really trust the man. When he realizes Plutarch is in on the plot with Beetee, Haymitch is shocked:

Plutarch? Plutarch knows about the arena plot? He's right. I don't trust him, or the whole forsaken plan now. Were Beetee and I being recorded somehow during the blackout, even if the cameras were out? It would be easy enough to bug the place. Were there microphones in the vegetable bouquet tonight? If that's the case, Plutarch could be working for the Capitol, trying to get more info out of me and kill anyone involved.

Plutarch will definitely play an enormous role in the film adaptation of "Sunrise on the Reaping," but tragically, Hoffman passed away in 2014, before the original "Hunger Games" films were even finished — so he won't be reprising his role as Plutarch. If I may, though? His very talented son Cooper Hoffman is right there.

Alongside Beetee, Wiress — played in "Catching Fire" by Amanda Plummer — is one of the District 3 victors who heads back into the arena with Katniss and Peeta, and in "Sunrise on the Reaping," she's a brand new mentor after winning the 49th Hunger Games. As Haymitch tells the reader, Wiress was stuck in an arena with entirely reflective surfaces that made most of the tributes absolutely lose their minds, whether they were slamming into a piece of glass thinking it was a path forward or simply overcome by all of the reflected light. Wiress, though, understood it innately. "Most of the tributes went nuts, but not Wiress," Haymitch recalls to himself. "She took it all in, then carefully maneuvered away from the Cornucopia, somehow finding packs of supplies where none appeared to be. Eventually, a clumsy bloodbath ensued, but she was long gone at that point, exploring the arena bit by bit, until she settled on a rock jutting out over a lake, in full view of her competitors. Except . . . they never were able to see her. She'd found a blind spot, and although they'd come raging within a few feet of her, she avoided detection. She just sat there, quiet as a mouse, eating, drinking from the lake, and sleeping curled up in a ball."

Ultimately, according to Haymitch, Wiress won her games by simply tricking another tribute: "Wiress finally stood up, revealing herself, and the boy leaped for what he thought was her, cracked his head, and drowned in the lake." Not even the hovercraft meant to remove Wiress from the arena could find her, and when asked how she managed the reflections, she simply said, "I followed the light beams." Haymitch isn't pleased that the "unnverving" victor is assigned to him, but she turns out to be incredibly helpful ... and considering that Wiress dies in the arena during the 75th Hunger Games, it's really amazing to get to know her better.

Because there are no known surviving victors from District 12 to mentor Haymitch or his fellow tributes Louella, Maysilee Donner, and Wyatt Callow, they're assigned Wiress as well as Mags Flanagan, played in "Catching Fire" by Lynn Cohen. Mags is elderly when we see her forced to compete in the 75th Hunger Games, and we immediately realize she's a nurturing presence to her fellow tribute in that game, her fellow District 4 victor Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin in the films). When it comes to Haymitch in "Sunrise on the Reaping," she's also maternal and comforting when he needs it the most.

I already mentioned that Louella, one of the District 12 tributes, is killed during the traditional parade (in one of the franchise's most deranged moves ever, which is saying something, the Capitol replaces Louella with a sort of clone that has none of her memories and can barely function). What I haven't mentioned yet is that Haymitch meets Mags in the immediate aftermath, and she says nothing ... but comforts him. "Mags just holds me while sobs rack my body and tears and snot drip onto her shoulder," Haymitch says of his future mentor. "Wiress takes Maysilee and Wyatt farther into the apartment, giving us a moment. 'I'm sorry,' I choke out. But Mags shakes her head and just keeps patting my back."

Mags sacrifices herself to save Finnick, Peeta, and Katniss in "Catching Fire," so this isn't surprising — but it's beautiful to see that Mags was always a caring presence in such an ugly world. Like some of the actors on this list, Cohen has passed away (the actress died in 2020), so she won't reprise her role, but someone new will get the chance to take over the role in the film adaptation.

"Hunger Games" fans know Effie Trinket as the materialistic stylist played by Elizabeth Banks who handles Katniss and Peeta during their first Hunger Games, and it was definitely surprising to see her pop up in "Sunrise on the Reaping" as an aspiring stylist who replaces Drusilla, the original Capitol handler for District 12. Before Haymitch enters the arena, Effie is just sort of on the periphery, hailed as a hero for showing up to clean up the mess Drusilla has created by, frankly, being totally inept and bad at her job. At the end, though, after Haymitch wins the Games, it seems like Effie is his only source of real support.

When it's time for the Victor's Ceremony, Haymitch's stunt with the arena's force field has clearly caused issues with the Capitol, so the guards manhandle and shackle him even after Effie dresses him to the nines — and that's when Haymitch realizes that she's sticking up for him in her own way. "Effie, to her credit, stands by me. When the Peacekeepers object, she says, 'He's the second Quarter Quell victor. Drusilla and Magno are not available. Someone should be with him to honor his achievement.'" 

Haymitch, dwelling on the necessary atrocities he committed in the arena, almost understands why he's shackled, but still, he has warm feelings towards the stylist. "I feel grateful to Effie," Haymitch narrates, before telling Effie he won't hurt her. "'I know that,' she says. "I've known who you are ever since you helped with my makeup box. And I know your position could not have been easy.' It's surprisingly touching." Unfortunately, that's when Effie's Capitol instincts fire back up, as she tells Haymitch, But they really are for a greater good. The Hunger Games." (With that, Haymitch says she's "lost" him). Effie will definitely be a returning player in the "Sunrise on the Reaping" film — though she likely won't be played by Banks — and it's cool to see her involved with multiple Games.

The Hunger Games are all about the spectacle — which is, ostensibly, meant to distract the citizens of the Capitol from the fact that they're treating murder as entertainment — which means there's always an announcer to add some flair to the proceedings. In "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," that duty falls to Lucky Flickerman, the prototype for all future Hunger Games announcers played by Jason Schwartzman; in the original "Hunger Games" trilogy, he's portrayed perfectly by a ghastly, grinning Stanley Tucci.

When Haymitch first sees Caesar during the traditional one-on-one tribute interviews, he does not mince words about the guy's appearance. "Caesar descends from the ceiling perched on a crescent moon, stars shooting behind him," Haymitch thinks to himself. 

"He's a young guy wearing a suit so dark blue it's almost black, embedded with tiny light bulbs that make it twinkle. The suit never changes, but every year, he dyes his hair a different color, tonight a deep pine-forest green, and paints his eyelids and lips the same color. Maybe you could make an argument for the hair and eyes, but green lips suggest a man in the process of decomposition. He just looks ghoulish. The gleam of his overly white teeth as he flashes the audience a knowing smile only reminds you that he's got a skull under all that glop. As he deftly dismounts the moon, he opens his arms and says, 'Hello, Panem! Shall we get this party started?' The audience roars in approval."

Serving as the narrator of a game where literal children kill each other for sport is, as Haymitch puts it, "ghoulish" to begin with, but Caesar takes bizarre glee in his job. We'll see who ends up playing a young Caesar, but there's zero doubt that it'll be an unnerving performance.

The film adaptation of "Sunrise on the Reaping" is currently set to be released on November 20, 2026.