The Sixth ‘Hunger Games’ Movie Will Hit Theaters In 2026
The Hunger Games is a series of dystopian young adult novels about life in North America at some point in the future. So far, each book in the Hunger Games series has been made into film (or in the case of Mockingjay, two films). With the recent release of the fifth Hunger Games book, Sunrise on the Reaping, the franchise’s sixth film is already in development.
Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel to the original trilogy. It takes place during the 50th Hunger Games where a young Haymitch Abernathy is forced to participate in the annual battle royale. The 50th games are a “Quarter Quell” which means special rules apply this year, and in this case, there are 48 participants (4 from each of the 12 districts) instead of the usual 24.
Fans reading Sunrise on the Reaping know a few major plot points before the book even begins: 1) Haymitch wins the games, and his character grows up to become a mentor to Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, 2) for some reason this year’s games are controversial and rarely shown in the Capitol, and 3) whatever happens during the games drives Haymitch to a lifetime of alcohol abuse and isolation.
The team behind the Hunger Games films has already begun working on an adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping, which was announced last year by Lionsgate. Franchise producer Nina Jacobson says that locations have already been chosen and they are happy with the draft of the screenplay so far. Of the story, Jacobson says:
I’m so desperately excited for people to finally get to start reading this book that I had to keep as a tiny little secret, because it is so rewarding to see how all the pieces come together in this one, and the big ideas and themes that she wants to explore are always just excruciatingly timely.
Haymitch is played by Woody Harrelson in the films and of casting his younger version, Jacobson says “Nobody can be Woody Harrelson but Woody Harrelson. But you have to find that mischief that he has in him inherently and try to understand, if you turn back time from the man you meet at the beginning of “The Hunger Games,” who he was before all of that, and why he became that.” The character is 16-years-old in the book, so the chosen actor will be around that age.
After an eight year hiatus, the most recent Hunger Games film, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, was released in 2023. This prequel was a villain origin story following a young Coriolanus Snow years before he became the evil president of Panem. Creepy Catalog ranked it as the best of all the Hunger Games films, so we have high hope for Sunrise on the Reaping to be a great movie.
The current release date for Sunrise on the Reaping is November 20, 2026.