Mumbai: The new trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping movie was released Wednesday, expanding on Haymitch Abernathy’s rebellion against the Capitol. It shows him openly defying President Snow and suggests that he entered the arena with a plan to break the Games from within.
The trailer opens with a voiceover from the older Haymitch from the original films: “Nobody ever wins the Games. Period. There are survivors. There’s no winners.”
It then cuts to 16-year-old Haymitch preparing for the 50th Hunger Games. President Snow tells him, “These are my Games. How you die is all up to me.”
Haymitch, however, does not seem particularly interested in playing by Snow’s rules. At one point, he stands in a silent stadium and gives Snow a slow clap.
His girlfriend Lenore Dove Baird is also pushing him to resist. When Haymitch says the Capitol has all the power and always has, she replies, “It doesn’t mean they always will.”
Inside the arena, Wiress tells Haymitch that it is a killing machine, but “all machines can be broken”. Plutarch Heavensbee seems to know that Haymitch is up to something. He warns that if anyone discovers what Haymitch is doing inside the arena, “we’re all dead.”
“We’re not animals to kill for their entertainment,” Haymitch says later.
The trailer ends with a line that connects Haymitch’s story to the uprising seen in the original trilogy: “Witness the beginning of the revolution.”
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It’s more brutal
Sunrise on the Reaping follows Haymitch through the Second Quarter Quell, held 24 years before Katniss Everdeen enters the Hunger Games. This time, the number of tributes is doubled, with 48 children sent into the arena instead of the usual 24.
Joseph Zada plays the young Haymitch, while Woody Harrelson returns as the older version of the character. Ralph Fiennes plays President Snow, Whitney Peak is Lenore Dove Baird, Maya Hawke plays Wiress, and Jesse Plemons is Plutarch Heavensbee. Mckenna Grace plays fellow District 12 tribute, Maysilee Donner. The cast also includes Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin and Glenn Close.
Francis Lawrence directs the film, based on Suzanne Collins’ 2025 novel. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping releases in theatres on 20 November.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)