🔥 Trending The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026) - Meet Haymitch

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is a 2025 dystopian novel by Suzanne Collins, serving as the second prequel to the original Hunger Games trilogy, following The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020) ³⁵. The story is set approximately 24 years before the events of the first Hunger Games novel, beginning on the morning of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell ⁵⁸.

The novel primarily focuses on the character of Haymitch Abernathy and his experience in the 50th Hunger Games ⁴⁶. It explores how he became the cynical and broken mentor seen in the original series ⁶. During this particular Quarter Quell, the rules were altered, doubling the number of tributes from each district, meaning 48 tributes competed instead of the usual 24 ⁴. The narrative delves into themes of political manipulation, the psychological toll of the Games, and the origins of Haymitch's complex personality ⁵⁶. An upcoming American dystopian action film based on the novel is also in production, directed by Francis Lawrence with a screenplay by Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie ⁹.