A new sneak peek at The Hunger Games: The Sunrise on the Reaping gives us our first look at Maya Hawke and Kieran Culkin's characters in the upcoming prequel.
Based on Suzanne Collins' novel of the same name, the movie is set 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games. Joseph Zada stars as Haymitch Abernathy, a tribute from District 12 at the 50th Hunger Games, AKA the Second Quarter Quell. In the original movie trilogy, he's played by Woody Harrelson and is a mentor to Katniss and Peeta.
He's joined by some other younger versions of familiar faces, too – around the 15:48 mark of a franchise recap featurette (which you can watch above), there's a glimpse of Hawke as Wiress, the winner of the 49th Hunger Games. She's played by Amanda Plummer in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, when she must compete in the third Quarter Quell with other former victors. At 15:52, we see Culkin as a younger version of flamboyant TV host Caesar Flickerman, who was played by Stanley Tucci in the original trilogy.
The cast also includes Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket (taking over from Elizabeth Banks), Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee (originally played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Ralph Fiennes, who takes over from Donald Sutherland to play President Coriolanus Snow. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will also return as Katniss and Peeta, likely in a flashforward.
In Panem, a Quarter Quell is a special edition of the Hunger Games with a twist that occurs every 25 years. In Sunrise on the Reaping, that twist is that there are double the number of contestants competing in the games: instead of one boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts, there are two boys and two girls.
The Hunger Games: The Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in theaters on November 20. In the meantime, check out our guide to the rest of this year's biggest movie release dates.
