‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ Finally Gives Fans a Real Look at Young Haymitch
Panem’s grimmest holiday just got a fresh coat of nostalgia. Every year, fans of ‘The Hunger Games’ mark July 4th as Reaping Day, the fictional date when tributes are chosen for the arena, and this year the date carried extra weight for one particular character. Reaping Day falls on July 4th, which also happens to be Haymitch Abernathy’s birthday, a detail the franchise has leaned into hard as it builds toward its next big theatrical event.
That event is ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’, a prequel based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novel of the same name, set 24 years before the events of the original ‘The Hunger Games’. The story follows Haymitch Abernathy on the morning of the reaping for the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, and that quell means Haymitch faces off against 47 other tributes instead of the usual 23.
On Saturday, Lionsgate marked the occasion by dropping a new promotional piece titled ‘Meet Haymitch’. The featurette gives a first look at the origin story of Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, winner of the 50th Hunger Games and star of the upcoming film, which hits theaters on November 20.
The footage teases Zada as Haymitch across scenes ranging from the literal sunrise on his Reaping Day to Capitol interviews to the Games themselves, interspersed with production clips and interviews with cast and crew about building the character’s backstory. Highlights include new looks at Reaping Day, the Capitol interviews, and the chaos that ensues once the Games begin.
Zada isn’t the only actor slipping into a role fans already know by heart. Elle Fanning stars as a young Effie Trinket, originally played by Elizabeth Banks, with the film also fleshing out the backstory of Effie and Haymitch’s relationship. Other returning characters recast for the prequel include President Snow, played by Ralph Fiennes, Caesar Flickerman by Kieran Culkin, Plutarch Heavensbee by Jesse Plemons, Wiress by Maya Hawke, and Beetee by Kelvin Harrison Jr.
The emotional core of the footage centers on Haymitch’s life back home before the Capitol tears him away from it. In the clip, his girlfriend Lenore Dove Baird, played by Whitney Peak, asks him if he can imagine the sun rising on a world without a Reaping, and Haymitch responds that he’s never had a birthday that came without one. The footage shows how Haymitch’s hard, bitter exterior begins to form in the heart of the Games, long before he becomes the mentor Woody Harrelson made iconic in the original trilogy.
Behind the camera, the franchise is staying in familiar hands. Francis Lawrence, who directed ‘Catching Fire’, both ‘Mockingjay’ films, and ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’, returns to direct from a script by franchise writer Billy Ray. With the cast rounding out names like Mckenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Lili Taylor and Billy Porter, the prequel is shaping up to be one of the franchise’s most stacked ensembles yet.
Does this first real glimpse of Joseph Zada’s Haymitch make you more excited to watch his transformation from lovestruck teenager to hardened Games victor unfold on the big screen this November?
