The Sunrise on the Reaping 50th Hunger Games Tribute Guide

Sunrise on the Reaping 50th Hunger Games Tribute Guide - Newcomers Pt 1“Twice the number of Tributes. Twice the Glory.”

Sunrise on the Reaping 50th Hunger Games Tribute Guide - Newcomers Pt 2

Sunrise on the Reaping 50th Hunger Games Tribute Guide - Careers

With the sheer number of characters in Sunrise on the Reaping, and the fanciful (yet always meaningful) names Suzanne Collins uses in the books, I thought it was time for a visual guide to the 48 tributes of the 50th Hunger Games.

48 tributes. 12 districts. Careers, Newcomers, district colors, character names, and actors’ names, finally in one place.

Save it and keep it handy, and use it as your arena study guide. The 50th Hunger Games are going to be a LOT to keep track of.

Many of the tribute actors have not been formally announced yet, so this guide was built piece by piece from publicly available info, behind-the-scenes images, cast/agency listings, and help from a few very kind sources.

Louella McCoy is not forgotten, I promise. This guide follows the 48-tribute lineup once Haymitch and Lou Lou are in place. District 12 simply refuses to be normal.

A quick note: this was a months-long original research project, not a reposted list. Please keep the credit attached if you use it or share it. A lot of care went into this one.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping - Official Trailer, New Posters & Stills

Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy

The brand-new official trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is finally here, and Lionsgate did not come empty-handed.

Along with the trailer, Lionsgate released two new official posters for the film, plus two stunning new stills photographed by legendary franchise photographer Murray Close.

The new materials give fans their clearest look yet at the world of the 50th Hunger Games, including the Second Quarter Quell arena, the Capitol’s polished machinery, and several major characters from Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping brought to life on screen.

Poster #1 Sunrise on the Reaping

The first poster reveals the full scope of the Second Quarter Quell, with tribute pedestals arranged around the Cornucopia in a vast mountain arena. The tagline reads:

Welcome to the Second Quarter Quell

The second poster (above) features Haymitch standing in the arena beneath the chilling words:

Break the Machine

Change the Games

Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket Sunrise on the ReapingJesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee

The stills released alongside the trailer include new official looks at Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket and Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, both offering a glimpse at the film’s 50th Games 70's era Capitol style.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in theaters and IMAX on November 20, 2026.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping First Teaser Trailer, Poster, and Official Stills Released

Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy in Sunrise on the Reaping

The first teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping has officially arrived, and the countdown to the 50th Hunger Games just got very real.

Lionsgate released the first teaser trailer, first official poster, and a set of new stills for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on November 20, 2025, exactly one year before the film arrives in theaters and IMAX on November 20, 2026.

For fans of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novel, this was the first major look at the world of young Haymitch Abernathy, the Second Quarter Quell, and the story that changed District 12 forever.

The First Sunrise on the Reaping Teaser Trailer Is Here

The teaser trailer gives fans their first official glimpse at Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 tribute whose story sits at the heart of Sunrise on the Reaping.

Set decades before Katniss Everdeen volunteers for her sister, Sunrise on the Reaping follows the events of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. In this brutal anniversary Games, twice as many tributes are reaped from each district, a cruel twist that makes Haymitch’s story one of the most devastating chapters in Hunger Games history.

The teaser gives us quick but powerful flashes of the world fans have been waiting to see brought to life: the reaping in District 12, the Capitol’s control, the arena, and the emotional relationships that shape Haymitch before he becomes the mentor we know from the original trilogy.

The First Official Poster: “These Games Are Going To Be Different”

The first official teaser poster for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, featuring the snake and mockingjay emblem and the tagline “These Games Are Going To Be Different.”

Alongside the teaser trailer, Lionsgate also released the first official teaser poster for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

The poster features the striking new emblem for the film: a snake and a mockingjay intertwined with flowers, greenery, and hints of fire. At the top, the tagline reads:

“These games are going to be different.”

The poster confirms the film’s release in theaters and IMAX on November 20, 2026.

Haymitch Abernathy played by Joseph Zada with Lenore Dove Baird, played by Whitney Peak

New Official Stills Reveal Haymitch, Maysilee, and Lenore Dove

Lionsgate also released new official stills from The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, giving fans a closer look at several major characters from the film.

Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy in Sunrise on the ReapingOne still shows Haymitch Abernathy at the reaping, walking between Peacekeepers as the children of District 12 are separated by age and gender. It is a chilling first look at the moment that changes his life forever.

Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy and Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner in Sunrise on the ReapingAnother still shows Haymitch in the arena with Maysilee Donner, played by McKenna Grace. The image captures the intensity and danger of the Second Quarter Quell, with Maysilee holding a blowgun as the two tributes appear to react to something nearby in the woods.

The third still (above) offers a quieter, more emotional look at Haymitch with Lenore Dove Baird, played by Whitney Peak. The two sit together in a meadow with geese nearby, a softer image that immediately contrasts with the brutality of the Games. For readers of Sunrise on the Reaping, this moment carries enormous emotional weight.

Together, the stills give fans a first real sense of the film’s range: District 12, the arena, the Capitol’s violence, and the love story at the center of Haymitch’s life.

The Countdown to November 20, 2026 Begins

With the first teaser trailer now released, the road to The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping has officially begun.

The film arrives in theaters and IMAX on November 20, 2026, exactly one year after this first major reveal. Between the teaser trailer, the symbolic poster, and the emotional first stills, Lionsgate has given fans plenty to analyze, theorize about, and cry over until the next major update.

These Games are going to be different - and the fandom is already fully back in the arena!

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Logo Teaser Revealed at CinemaCon

Sunrise on the Reaping Logo Teaser Revealed48 tributes. One victor.

“I think these Games are going to be different.”

The first animated logo teaser for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping officially debuted at CinemaCon, giving us our first look at the film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ newest Hunger Games novel.

And while it was technically a logo reveal, it felt like so much more.

Watch the Sunrise on the Reaping logo teaser below:

The bird and snake from the book cover twist into motion, a volcano erupts in the distance… and we hear Woody Harrelson’s voice at the end, with a line that immediately sent the fandom into a spiral:

“I think these Games are going to be different.”

The Bird, the Snake, and the 50th Hunger Games

The animated logo reveal leans heavily into the symbolism of Sunrise on the Reaping. The snake and bird imagery connects directly to the book’s cover and the flint striker emblem associated with Haymitch Abernathy and Lenore Dove.

The erupting volcano is also a major visual tease for the Second Quarter Quell arena. In Catching Fire, readers learned that Haymitch won the 50th Hunger Games in an arena filled with deadly beauty and hidden traps. Sunrise on the Reaping finally expands that story, following a sixteen-year-old Haymitch as he is reaped into a Quarter Quell with twice the usual number of tributes.

What We Know About the Movie

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games and follows Haymitch Abernathy during the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

Francis Lawrence, who directed several previous Hunger Games films, returns to direct. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson are also producing, and Billy Ray, who co-wrote the original Hunger Games film, is writing the screenplay. At CinemaCon, Lawrence said the movie would begin filming in July and described it as a “return to form” for the franchise. 

The film is scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 20, 2026.

The book had already brought readers back to District 12 and into Haymitch’s point of view. But the logo reveal made the movie adaptation feel tangible for the first time.

The volcano. The bird. The snake. The flint striker. The voiceover. The promise that these Games are going to be different.

It was not a full trailer yet, but it was the first spark.

And in Panem, sparks have a way of becoming something much bigger.

If you haven’t read Sunrise on the Reaping yet… what are you waiting for? The 50th Hunger Games have already begun. Shop Sunrise on the Reaping HERE.

Sunrise on the Reaping Is Here: Suzanne Collins Returns to Panem, Haymitch and the 50th Hunger Games + NEW INTERVIEW!

Sunrise on the Reaping is officially hereThe time has come!

Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping officially hits bookshelves today, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, bringing readers back to Panem for one of the most anticipated stories in The Hunger Games universe: Haymitch Abernathy’s Games.

Set nearly 25 years before the events of The Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping follows sixteen-year-old Haymitch on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

Longtime fans have known the broad outline of Haymitch’s victory since Catching Fire. We knew he survived. We knew he became the only living victor from District 12 before Katniss and Peeta. We knew President Snow punished him by killing the people he loved.

But Sunrise on the Reaping finally reveals the story behind the boy who became the mentor.

Suzanne CollinsNew Interview With Suzanne Collins 

In a new interview with Scholastic’s David Levithan released for the publication of Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins discussed why she wanted to return to Haymitch’s story after writing The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

David Levithan: After writing in Coriolanus’s voice for Ballad, it must have felt like quite a change to slip into Haymitch’s point of view. Can you talk about what it was like to be wearing his voice and how that shaped the book as a whole?

Suzanne Collins: After traveling with Coriolanus, who is endlessly manipulative and controlling, it was a relief to wear both Haymitch’s voice and character. He has a much greater capacity for hope and love and joy. More than Coriolanus — or Katniss, for that matter. His voice is Seam overlaid with Lenore Dove’s Covey influence. There’s far more color to his expression, more humor. Sadly, at the end of the book you see his concentrated effort to strip all that away, so by the time you reach the trilogy, his language has lost the musicality of his youth. A combination of his desperation to forget combined with years of Capitol TV erase it. I like to think in his remaining years after the war, he reclaims it. You can hear it coming back in the epilogue.

David Levithan: It is a particular challenge to start a novel when you and most of its future readers already know its ending. 

Suzanne Collins:  It’s another way to approach a story, but it has its advantages. If you look at Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we learn in the prologue  that the lovers will die. So you’re really not focused on what’s going to happen, but on how or why it happens. In the same way, you know Haymitch becomes a victor and Snow kills his loved ones, but you don’t know the events that lead to these ends. How? Why? Where? What? Who? You have to read the book to find out.

David Levithan:  In some of our initial conversations about the book, we talked about whether it would be written in the voice of the older Haymitch looking back or the younger Haymitch processing it as he experienced it. What led you to decide to take the approach you ultimately did?

Suzanne Collins: I played around with it both ways, but I found that younger Haymitch speaks directly to the YA audience the best. An older person reflecting back on their youth or shifting into a child’s perspective is harder to pull off. Good work, Harper Lee!

David Levithan: How do you feel spending so much time in younger Haymitch’s shoes has changed your understanding of the Haymitch we see in the trilogy?

Suzanne Collins: I don’t think it changed my understanding of him — Haymitch is still Haymitch — but it gave me room to explore his earlier journey. Like his relationship to Katniss via Burdock. What it meant to take on his best friend’s child and see her through the war and become her surrogate father. It was nice to have some time with that angle.

David Levithan: Like the other Hunger Games books, there is a clear three-part structure in place here, with each part getting the same number of chapters. How does this structure help you shape the story?

Suzanne Collins:  I began as a playwright over forty years ago, and that dramatic structure became the template for the novels. Since I’ve worked with it for decades, it’s almost second nature, and that allows me to spend my energy elsewhere. This is the tenth book I’ve used this structure for, so I know certain things I want to achieve by certain points in the story. If I haven’t achieved them, something isn’t working the way I hoped, and I probably need to pause and figure out why.

Shop Sunrise on the Reaping here.

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Suzanne Collins Reads From Sunrise on the Reaping Chapter 1

Listen to Suzanne Collins read from Chapter 1 of Sunrise on the Reaping

Before Sunrise on the Reaping arrived on bookshelves, we were given a rare and thrilling sneak peek at Haymitch Abernathy’s story — read by Suzanne Collins herself.

In two official audio excerpts, Collins reads from Chapter 1 of Sunrise on the Reaping, bringing fans back to District 12 on the morning of the 50th Hunger Games.

Listen to Suzanne Collins Read From Chapter 1

The first excerpt introduces readers to sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy on Reaping Day.

It is the beginning of the Second Quarter Quell, the morning that changes everything, and the first real glimpse of Haymitch before the arena, before his victory, and before the Capitol takes nearly everything from him.

A New Passage Featuring Haymitch and Lenore Dove

The second passage features Haymitch and Lenore Dove.

This moment offered a softer, more intimate look at Haymitch’s life before the Games, full of geese hissing, kisses stolen, a birthday gift, and one haunting question:

Can you imagine a world without the reaping?

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins follows Haymitch Abernathy during the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, set 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games.

Shop Sunrise on the Reaping HERE. 

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First Sunrise on the Reaping Excerpt Reveals Haymitch’s Birthday, Lenore Dove, and District 12 Life

First Sunrise on the Reaping Excerpt Reveals Haymitch’s Birthday, Lenore Dove, and District 12 LifeBefore Haymitch Abernathy became the mentor we met in The Hunger Games, he was just a boy from District 12 trying to survive Reaping Day.

And thanks to the first official excerpt from Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping, we finally ave our earliest glimpse at Haymitch’s story.

The exclusive Chapter One excerpt, first revealed by PEOPLE, marked the true beginning of the Sunrise on the Reaping era. It introduced readers to sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy on the morning of the Second Quarter Quell - a day that is already devastating before the reaping even begins.

Because Haymitch’s birthday is July 4. Reaping Day.

Click to read more ...

Official Cover and Synopsis Revealed for 'Sunrise on the Reaping' - Haymitch Abernathy Takes Center Stage

Sunrise on The Reaping Book Cover Reveal Attention, tributes! The moment we've all been waiting for is finally here. Revealed this morning on the Today Show, the official cover of Sunrise on the Reaping is out, and it's everything we hoped for and more! The newest installment in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games saga is set to hit bookshelves on March 18, 2025.

But wait, there's more! Alongside the stunning cover reveal, we've got the official book synopsis, confirmation of Haymitch Abernathy's point of view, and our first teaser quote from the man himself. Cue the screaming, crying, and throwing up!

Haymitch Abernathy's Story - Finally Told!

Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger GamesLongtime fans of the original trilogy will remember Haymitch Abernathy, District 12's sardonic mentor to Katniss and Peeta. He survived and won the 50th Hunger Games - the Second Quarter Quell - and now, he's stepping into the spotlight as the protagonist of this highly anticipated prequel. Scholastic confirmed in a press release that we'll finally delve into Haymitch's backstory.

Official Book Synopsis:

"Sunrise on the Reaping revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

As the day dawns on the 50th annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town.

As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight... and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena."

First Teaser Quote from Haymitch:

Our first quote from Haymitch Abernathy in Sunrise on the ReapingAfter the cover reveal, the official Hunger Games social media accounts blessed us with the first teaser quote from the upcoming book:

"They will not use my tears for their entertainment."

Can we talk about how powerful this line is? It's giving us major chills and hints at the emotional rollercoaster we're about to embark on. Haymitch's defiance and resilience are already shining through, and we can't wait to see more of his inner thoughts and struggles.

The Haunting Tagline:

Adding more depth to the emotional landscape of the book, Scholastic released a chilling tagline that foreshadows Haymitch's upcoming journey:

"When you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?"

First Look at the Cover Art:

We also got some intriguing insights into the cover art from Scholastic's press release:

Sunrise On The Reaping Book Cover

"The spiky sun rises on a symbol that will come to mean a lot to Haymitch Abernathy, as well as countless readers," said David Levithan, vice president, publisher, and editorial director for Scholastic.

"Artist Tim O’Brien has created yet another iconic Hunger Games cover—this one symbolically exploring one of the central themes of the series: how conflicting forces can be connected by their common nature, the songbird and the snake springing from the same source."

The cover features a radiant, spiky sun between two familiar symbols, hinting at the dualities and conflicts that will shape Haymitch's journey. It promises depth and symbolism—exactly what we've come to expect from the series.

The Cover Controversy:

While the fandom is buzzing with excitement over the synopsis, teaser quote, and Haymitch's confirmed role as protagonist, the cover itself has sparked some debate! Our Instagram poll shows a 75% positive vs. 25% negative reaction so far.

Some fans are absolutely loving the new design, praising its boldness and symbolic depth. Others are on the fence, hoping it will grow on them as more is revealed about the story and the meaning behind the imagery.

Let the Theories Begin!

We'll be diving deeper into a cover analysis and sharing all our thoughts on the synopsis, that heart-stopping tagline, and Haymitch's poignant quote in upcoming posts. But for now, we want to hear from you!

What are your initial thoughts on the cover?

How does Haymitch's teaser quote make you feel?

What emotions does the tagline evoke for you?

Are you excited to explore Haymitch's backstory?

What do you think the symbolism on the cover represents?

Drop your comments below or join the conversation on our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Let's get the discussion started!

Mark Your Calendars & Pre-Order Now!

Sunrise on the Reaping will be released on March 18, 2025. Secure your copy now by pre-ordering through the link below.

Pre-Order "Sunrise on the Reaping" HERE!