The odds of Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson returning to the Hunger Games franchise are favorably aligned, with multiple outlets reporting that the former costars will reprise their roles as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in the upcoming prequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. This new film is centered around Woody Harrelson's character, Haymitch Abernathy, and it seems likely that the pair will appear in a flash-forward scene at the end.
In the epilogue of Suzanne Collins' novel, which the movie is adapted from, Katniss and Peeta sit down with Haymitch following their revolution in the Capitol, which occurred in Mockingjay. They learn about his tragic backstory, and Haymitch insists that he didn't want to have anything to do with their memorial book after the war. "What use? What point? To relive all the loss," he says.
Despite this, Katniss and Peeta embrace their former mentor and offer him a flock of geese to tend to after learning that his late love, Lenora Dove Baird, cared for the animal. "Like the geese," Haymitch remarks, "we really did mate for life." When Haymitch finally opens up about the horrors he endured as a tribute during the second Quarter Quell, he realizes the parallels between himself and Katniss. "She's not an easy person; she's like me, Peeta always says. But she was smarter than me, or luckier," Haymitch admits. When it comes to the reaping, he adds, "She's the one who kept that sun from rising."
While Woody has not officially confirmed his on-screen return to the Hunger Games film franchise, his voice was heard in a recently released teaser trailer, saying, "I think these games are gonna be different." The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping stars Joseph Zada as a young Haymitch alongside Glenn Close, McKenna Grace, Elle Fanning, Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Plemons, Kieran Culkin, Billy Porter, and Whitney Peak and is set to be released on November 20th, 2026.
