Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are returning to the Hunger Games arena

Katniss and Peeta will make their triumphant return to the Hunger Games franchise for the upcoming prequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping.

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are returning to the Hunger Games arena

Seeing as the odds are forever in their favor, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are returning to the franchise that gave them their start. Both stars will make their series re-debut in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel, Sunrise On The Reaping. To Quentin Tarantino’s unending frustration, Sunrise On The Reaping takes place 24 years before the first Hunger Games film, which was released when Lawrence was 22. According to The Hollywood Reporter, both actors will reprise their respective roles as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. We don’t know what de-aging technology Lionsgate plans to implement to make the actors, both in their mid-30s, look 24 years younger, but we look forward to the attempt. THR predicts they will appear in flash-forwards, perhaps reading the Hunger Games to their grandchildren far in the future. But we remain confident that Hollywood’s special effects wizards can make JLaw look like a believable negative two-year-old.

Katniss’ parents will also appear in the film, with Scot Greenan playing her father, Burdock, and Grace Ackary playing her mother, Asterid, a part originally inhabited by Paula Malcolm in the original trilogy. Other legacy characters from previous films have been recast, too, including Elle Fanning, who takes over for Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, and Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, a role previously played by Donald Sutherland in the original films and Tom Blyth and Dexter Sol Ansell in 2023’s The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes.

The games will begin when Sunrise On The Reaping opens in theaters on November 20, 2026.

 
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