Sunrise on the Reaping is Suzanne Collins’s fifth Hunger Games novel. Published in March 2025, it follows a young Haymitch Abernathy as he is chosen for the 50th Hunger Games, also called the Second Quarter Quell. A film adaptation, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, is scheduled to reach theaters on November 20, 2026.
The distinction matters: the book is already available, while the film has not yet been released as of October 3, 2026. The story takes place 24 years before Katniss Everdeen’s first Games. Readers of the original trilogy know Haymitch as Katniss and Peeta’s mentor; this prequel follows him before he becomes that man.
What is Sunrise on the Reaping about?
The novel begins on the morning tributes are selected for Panem’s 50th Hunger Games. For this Quarter Quell, the Capitol doubles the number taken from each district. District 12 must send four tributes instead of two, bringing the total across Panem to 48.
Haymitch is trying to get through the day and return to the people he loves. Once his name is called, that ordinary hope disappears. He is sent to the Capitol with three other young people from District 12 and faces a contest designed to entertain its audience at the tributes’ expense.
That is the spoiler-light premise given by publisher Scholastic. The novel goes further than the question of whether Haymitch survives. Readers who know the earlier books already know that he becomes a victor. The tension lies in what happens to him, how he responds to the Capitol and what a public account of the Games might leave out.
Why is Haymitch’s story important?
In the original trilogy, Haymitch is an experienced but deeply troubled mentor. He understands the Games as both a deadly competition and a performance controlled by the Capitol. Sunrise on the Reaping places readers at an earlier point in his life, before years of loss and survival have shaped the person Katniss meets.
The prequel also changes the perspective from which readers see the 50th Games. Knowing who won is not the same as knowing what the participants experienced or how those events were later presented to Panem. Collins has connected the book to questions about propaganda and the power to control a narrative. Haymitch’s personal story gives those ideas a human scale.
This is why calling the novel simply “the story of how Haymitch won” sells it short. His victory is part of established Hunger Games history. The new book is interested in its cost and in the difference between lived events and the version an authority chooses to show.
Where does it fit in the Hunger Games timeline?
Sunrise on the Reaping is set after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and before the original Hunger Games trilogy. Its central event is the Second Quarter Quell, 24 years before the Games in which Katniss volunteers for Prim.
That makes the chronological order:
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
- Sunrise on the Reaping
- The Hunger Games
- Catching Fire
- Mockingjay
Chronological order is not necessarily the easiest way for a newcomer to read the series. The original trilogy introduces Haymitch’s later role and establishes why his past matters. Someone starting there can then return to Sunrise on the Reaping with a clearer sense of what Collins is revealing. Readers who already know the series can follow the prequel without rereading every earlier book.
Katniss is not the lead character in this story; its events occur before her generation’s Games. Haymitch is the central figure.
When is the Sunrise on the Reaping movie coming out?
Lionsgate has scheduled the film for November 20, 2026, including an IMAX release. As of October 3, that remains an upcoming date, so descriptions of the finished movie’s quality or exact departures from the novel would be premature.
Joseph Zada plays young Haymitch, a role associated with Woody Harrelson in the earlier films. The announced cast also includes Whitney Peak, Mckenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Maya Hawke and others. Francis Lawrence, who directed every Hunger Games film from Catching Fire onward, returns as director. Billy Ray adapted Collins’s novel for the screen.
A trailer can show the film’s look and introduce its characters, but it cannot establish how much of Haymitch’s internal experience will survive the move from page to screen. That is one of the central questions for this adaptation: the novel can place readers close to what Haymitch knows and fears, while the film must convey those ideas through performances, images and dialogue.
Is the book available now?
Yes. The original novel was published on March 18, 2025. Scholastic subsequently issued a trade paperback in August 2026 and a movie tie-in paperback in September 2026. Readers do not need to wait for the film to learn Haymitch’s story.
For anyone deciding between the two, the clearest starting point is the distinction between a completed novel and an unreleased adaptation. The book provides Collins’s account of the Second Quarter Quell now. The film will offer its own interpretation when it reaches theaters.
