We had earlier reported that The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping had found its Haymitch Abernathy and his girlfriend Lenore Dove Baird in actors Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak. The cast of the prequel to the original trilogy is slowly taking shape with the addition of cast members. The latest to join the team is actor Jesse Plemons who is set to play a young version of Plutarch Heavensbee, the character who plays the Head Gamemaker for the 75th Hunger Games. A secret rebel-insider, he becomes a commander of the rebel forces of District 13 during the Second Rebellion.
Set 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games during the Second Quarter Quell (50th Hunger Games), it will centre on a 12-year-old Haymitch Abernathy, portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the original Hunger Games movies and how he competes in the games with 48 children as tributes.
Philip Seymour Hoffman played Heavensbee in the original Hunger Games films Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and 2. He unfortunately passed away in 2014 before his portions could be completed. Interestingly, Hoffman and Plemons previously shared screenspace in The Master (2012), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson where the latter played Hoffman's son.
Francis Lawrence, who has helmed every Hunger Games installment since 2012’s Catching Fire, is directing this upcoming film. Billy Ray, who has co-written the original trilogy, is writing the screenplay for the film. While Elle Fanning, best known for playing Princess Aurora in the Maleficent films, is being eyed to play a young Effie Trinket, her casting is yet to be confirmed. McKenna Grace, who recently joined the cast will portray Maysilee Donner, a tribute from District 12, along with Haymitch.
Sunrise on the Reaping, which was published by Collins in March, is being bankrolled by Color Force’s Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson. Cameron MacConomy is the executive producer. It is set to go on floors in July and slated for a November 20, 2026 release.
Jesse Plemons recently appeared in Netflix’s Black Mirror episode 'USS Callister: Into Infinity.' His other prominent works include Friday Night Lights, Killers of the Flower Moon, Kinds of Kindness, and Zero Day. Up next, he will star in an untitled project directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and will reunite with Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia.