The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Recap—Everything You Need to Know

This article discusses addiction and mental health.

In 2008, Suzanne Collins—then known for her work on television shows such as “Clarissa Explains It All” and for the children’s series “The Underland Chronicles”—transformed young adult fiction with the release of “The Hunger Games.” The novel blended elements of “The Lord of the Flies” and “Battle Royale” in a dystopian world ruled by the authoritarian Capitol, where children are forced to fight to the death in the horrifying titular competition. Collins followed it with “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay,” creating a complete trilogy. Film adaptations soon arrived, with “Mockingjay” divided into two movies, following the approach taken with the final “Harry Potter” book.

The success of “The Hunger Games” inspired a wave of similar young adult franchises, including “Divergent,” “The Maze Runner,” and “The Mortal Instruments.” Although those stories were also adapted from novels, none matched Collins’ lasting impact or her sharp examination of government overreach, reality television, and social control. The franchise remains popular, and Collins has since published two prequels: “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and “Sunrise on the Reaping.” Both explore the history that eventually produces the world Katniss Everdeen inhabits in “The Hunger Games.” With “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” now receiving a major film adaptation—starring Joseph Zada as Haymitch, alongside Mckenna Grace, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, and Ralph Fiennes, with Francis Lawrence returning as director—what should audiences remember about the broader timeline before watching? Spoilers for everything but “Sunrise on the Reaping” follow!

The original “The Hunger Games” introduces Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence in the films, as well as the nation of Panem and its brutal annual spectacle. Speaking in the first person, Katniss recalls the mayor’s Reaping Day address, which explains how the Games began:

The mayor describes Panem as a country built from the ruins of what was once North America. He recounts the disasters that reshaped the continent—droughts, storms, fires, rising seas, and a devastating war over dwindling resources. From that destruction came Panem, a prosperous Capitol surrounded by 13 districts. Peace lasted until the Dark Days, when the districts rebelled. The Capitol defeated 12 of them and declared the 13th destroyed.

Katniss comes from District 12, a struggling coal-mining region. At school, she learned that the Capitol stood in an area once known as the Rockies, while District 12 occupied the region called Appalachia. When her younger sister, Primrose, portrayed by Willow Shields in the films, is selected in the lottery, Katniss volunteers to take her place. The rules are brutally straightforward: every district must send one girl and one boy between the ages of 12 and 18 into an arena, where the last surviving tribute wins. The Capitol broadcasts the violence as entertainment, while its own children remain safely outside the competition. The victor receives wealth and privilege, but surviving comes at an enormous cost.

Katniss first encounters Haymitch Abernathy, played by Woody Harrelson in the original films and by Joseph Zada in the prequel, at the District 12 Reaping. He is the district’s only known living victor.

“In seventy-four years, we have had exactly two. Only one is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy, a paunchy, middle-aged man, who at this moment appears hollering something unintelligible, staggers onto the stage, and falls into the third chair. He’s drunk. Very.”

The prequel also reveals that Haymitch left behind people he loved when he entered the Games: his girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird; his mother, Willamae; and his younger brother, Sid. Whitney Peak, Kara Tointon, and Smylie Bradwell play those characters in the film adaptation. Before becoming a victor, Haymitch worked as a bootlegger in District 12, selling illegal liquor to support his family. Despite his later alcoholism, he was not a drinker during his teenage years. The Games—and what follows them—change him profoundly.

At the District 12 Reaping, Katniss sees Haymitch drunk and barely able to stand. After she and Peeta Mellark, played by Josh Hutcherson, clean him up following another night of drinking, they meet him properly aboard the train to the Capitol. Their group includes Haymitch and stylist Effie Trinket, portrayed by Elizabeth Banks in the original films and Elle Fanning in “Sunrise on the Reaping.” When Katniss reminds Haymitch that he is supposed to advise and support them, he offers only one instruction: “Stay alive.” Peeta responds by knocking away Haymitch’s first drink of the morning, while Katniss drives a knife into the wooden table between his fingers. Haymitch is, despite himself, impressed.

Katniss initially assumes Haymitch gives poor advice because he does not care what happens to her. In reality, he gradually becomes deeply invested in both tributes and recognizes that Katniss has a genuine chance to win. He uses every tool available to help her survive.

When Katniss and Peeta secure a joint victory by convincing Panem that their relationship is real, Katniss and Haymitch have formed a lasting bond. Their complicated connection becomes even more important in the sequels.

At the beginning of “Catching Fire,” Katniss and Peeta live with their families in District 12’s Victor’s Village, a collection of grand but largely abandoned homes reserved for Hunger Games winners. Haymitch lives there as well. Katniss regularly visits the rough marketplace known as the Hob to buy something for him:

“The liquor isn’t for my family. It’s for Haymitch, who acted as mentor for Peeta and me in the Games. He’s surly, violent, and drunk most of the time. But he did his job—more than his job—because for the first time in history, two tributes were allowed to win. So no matter who Haymitch is, I owe him, too. And that’s for always.”

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Katniss and Peeta eventually discover that Haymitch has been working behind the scenes. He encourages them to form alliances with other victors, including Finnick Odair and Johanna Mason, played by Sam Claflin and Jena Malone. His true objective is to help the resistance extract them from the arena. The plan partly succeeds, but everything unravels at the end of “Catching Fire”: Katniss and Haymitch escape, while Peeta is captured by the Capitol.

Their relationship is badly damaged in “Mockingjay.” Katniss is furious that Haymitch did not save Peeta, who is taken to the Capitol and tortured during the widening war. While they shelter in District 13—the underground resistance stronghold that truly exists despite the Capitol’s claims—Katniss blames Haymitch for allowing Peeta to be lost. Haymitch counters that Katniss had to be protected because she was the person capable of inspiring the rebellion and rallying Panem’s oppressed population.

Once Katniss becomes the Mockingjay, the symbolic leader of the resistance, Haymitch continues to assist her however he can. Their relationship slowly begins to heal, although Katniss’s stubbornness often gets in the way. One of the funniest moments between them comes while she is filming propaganda footage. After Katniss finishes a particularly unconvincing take, Haymitch’s laughter comes over the intercom before he delivers the cutting verdict: “And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies.”

Katniss and Haymitch survive the Capitol’s war and eventually settle in District 12 with Peeta. Survival, however, does not erase what they endured. All three carry profound psychological scars. Haymitch’s history also links to Collins’ first prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” even though that story occurs before he is born.

District 12 is central to every existing “Hunger Games” book and film. It is where Katniss faces the Reaping, where Haymitch is selected for his own Games, and where a young Coriolanus Snow finds an important assignment in “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” In the 2023 film, Tom Blyth plays the young Snow, known as “Coryo.” A student at the Capitol Academy and heir to the Snow family, Coryo lives in poverty with his sister and grandmother after his family’s status collapses. As part of his training, he is assigned to mentor a District 12 tribute in the 10th Hunger Games: Lucy Gray Baird, the Covey singer played by Rachel Zegler.

The Academy dean, Casca Highbottom, played by Peter Dinklage, initially assigns District 12 to Coryo as a punishment. But after meeting Lucy, who shocks the crowd at the Reaping by slipping a snake into a rival’s dress, he recognizes the power of her music and charisma. The 10th Hunger Games are broadcast throughout Panem—the first Games to be televised—and Coryo skillfully uses Lucy’s talent to attract sponsors and public sympathy. His manipulation, guidance, and apparent faith in her help Lucy win the 10th Hunger Games.

Lucy wins the games — she’s the only victor to precede Haymitch— but because Coryo helps her lightly cheat with some rat poison hidden inside of her token as well as a trick where he uses a handkerchief with her scent to trick some Capitol “muttations” into avoiding her, he’s punished again by Casca Highbottom and forced to become a Peacekeeper. Still, Coryo quietly arranges to be sent to District 12 to reunite with her. If you’ve watched or read “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” you know that Lucy and Coryo’s relationship doesn’t exactly end well. 

In fact, in District 12, Coryo’s true colors start to show. Not only does he betray his best friend and fellow Hunger Games mentor Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andrés Rivera in the film) by recording him discussing a rebellion using a jabberjay — and sending said jabberjay to the Capitol’s Head Gamemaker at the time, Viola Davis’ evil Dr. Volumnia Gaul — but during an altercation with Lucy Gray and other District 12 denizens, a shootout occurs, and Coryo kills the mayor’s daughter Mayfair Lipp (Isobel Jesper Jones) in the process. He and Lucy devise a plan to run away together, but Lucy is understandably wary of Coryo, especially after Sejanus is hanged and Coryo says something odd about killing multiple people. As she escapes his clutches, Coryo attempts to shoot her, but she gets away … and his villain arc officially begins, as does his enduring hatred of District 12. (It’s not a coincidence that an older President Snow hates the strong-willed, brown-haired District 12 tribute Katniss Everdeen.)

Once we learn that Haymitch wins a particularly dangerous and frightening iteration of the Hunger Games in “Catching Fire,” it’s easy to see how Suzanne Collins built an entire prequel around the Second Quarter Quell. (In the text of “Catching Fire,” a miniature version of Haymitch’s games that we see in full in “Sunrise on the Reaping” plays out as Katniss and Peeta watch the official Capitol footage of the interviews, arena carnage, and conclusion, ending with Haymitch’s surprising victory.) Because of Haymitch’s participation in these specific games, he’s the most essential connective tissue in the entire Hunger Games universe — because he has crucial interactions with both Snow and Katniss, bridging the decades between them.

Like Katniss, Haymitch is a rebel who uses forbidden aspects of the arena — like a force field — to great effect (he wins the Games when his only surviving opponent, a “Career” tribute from District 1, throws an axe at him only for it to rebound in the force field and kill her instead). He also is given “special” attention by Snow — as Katniss is decades later as well — and he understands the danger posed by Snow and the Capitol at his command better than anyone (for reasons we won’t spoil here that have to do with the ending of “Sunrise on the Reaping”). Spoilers aside, Haymitch vows to bring down the Capitol and end the Games in “Sunrise on the Reaping” — the title of which refers to him hoping another sun will never rise on Reaping Day — and thanks to Katniss, he achieves that goal decades after winning the Second Quarter Quell.

After the initial release of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins waited a full decade to release “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and another five for “Sunrise on the Reaping,” so whether or not she’ll continue telling stories from different Games and parts of Panem is anyone’s guess. With that said, the world that Collins has built here is vast, layered, and fascinating, and it’s genuinely remarkable that both of the prequels we’ve gotten so far haven’t felt like cheap attempts to cash in on a sensation. Instead, they’re fascinating and urgent … and only add to the wider world of Panem instead of diminishing the legacy of this genuinely excellent young adult series.

It’s easy to imagine that, in the future, we’ll get a prequel focused on Games won by former victors like Finnick Odair or Johanna Mason. Perhaps we could even take a look at a complex Capitol figure in the form of Plutarch Heavensbee, who’s portrayed by Jesse Plemons in the prequel and who was played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman in the original trilogy. In any case, we’ll all be waiting to see if Collins continues her story … and “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” releases 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).

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