The first reactions to “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” are in, and they are glowing. The film held its London premiere on Wednesday, October 28th, and critics who attended started posting about it. Lionsgate allowed people who attended the October 28th screenings to post limited reactions. Full reviews remain under embargo. Joseph Zada draws the loudest praise as Haymitch, and critic Griffin Schiller of FilmSpeak goes as far as calling the prequel the “Rogue One” of the franchise. Lionsgate releases the film in theaters and IMAX on November 20th.
Francis Lawrence directs, as he has for every film in the series except the first, which Gary Ross made. Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie wrote the screenplay from Suzanne Collins’s 2025 novel. Lionsgate’s official synopsis follows sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy from District 12 on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Annual Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. That makes it “the biggest Games yet with twice as many tributes.” The story takes place in Panem 24 years before the events of “The Hunger Games.” Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for the rest of the official synopsis and for how the film connects to the earlier movies.
Joseph Zada draws the loudest praise as Haymitch, and critic Griffin Schiller of FilmSpeak goes as far as calling the prequel the “Rogue One” of the franchise.”
The rest of the synopsis explains why the reactions keep circling back to rebellion. Once Haymitch is in the arena, he forms an unlikely alliance with fellow tribute Maysilee Donner (Mckenna Grace). He also joins a coalition determined to challenge the Capitol’s control under President Snow (Ralph Fiennes). Lionsgate says Haymitch risks everything to take down the Games from within the arena, “setting in motion the rebellion that will change Panem forever.” That pitches a sixteen-year-old tribute as the spark behind the uprising Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) later leads. The timeline shows how wide the gap is. Katniss and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) win the 74th Games in the original film, and the Third Quarter Quell in “Catching Fire” is the 75th, with tributes drawn from the pool of past victors. The Second Quarter Quell is the one Haymitch enters, 24 years before Katniss does.
The placement matters for the saga. “Sunrise on the Reaping” is the second prequel after 2023’s “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” Nina Starner of SlashFilm wrote that it “bridges the gap perfectly between the original stories and Ballad.” Fiennes is the third actor to play Snow, after Donald Sutherland in the first four films and Tom Blyth in “Ballad.” Zada takes over Haymitch from Woody Harrelson, who played the mentor to Katniss in the originals. The original trio has not been left out. Jennifer Lawrence confirmed on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she is back as Katniss, and she said she reunited with Josh Hutcherson and Harrelson.
The boldest claim comes from The Nerds of Color, which posted a reaction credited to Nikita Francois that said “SUNRISE ON THE REAPING is easily the best film in the Hunger Games franchise.” The DawsOnScreen account said the film “feels like the follow up to Catching Fire I have always wanted” and called it “a near perfect Hunger Games movie that is more brutal than you could imagine.” The rating card on Lionsgate’s own featurette backs up the tone. It lists PG-13 for “strong violence, bloody images, disturbing material, some smoking and teen drinking.” The studio is also selling the film for IMAX, and its trailer card reads “Filmed for IMAX.”
Schiller made the “Rogue One” comparison outright. He wrote that “Sunrise on the Reaping is the Rogue One/Andor of the franchise.” He then described it as “A sobering, yet powerful story of devastating loss and the necessary cost of rebellion for a sunrise we may never see.” The comparison works on structure, and the “Andor” half fits the synopsis too. That series was about how a rebellion forms out of ordinary people, and the synopsis has Haymitch joining a coalition instead of acting alone. “Rogue One” told a story whose ending the audience already knew, and so does this one. Anyone who saw the original films knows Haymitch survives to mentor Katniss. The tension is what the 50th Games cost him, and Collider’s Perri Nemiroff points the same way, calling the film “a powerful reminder that nothing is inevitable and it is possible to break a bad machine.”
Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture looked past this single film. He wrote of Francis Lawrence that “If this is to be the end of his time working on these movies, it’s a good way to go out as this latest installment brings the franchise full circle with the character that’s always been the beating heart at its center.” Schiller wrote that “Like the book, the film challenges our own implicit submission and acceptance of terms we’ve never agreed to when the odds ARE in our favor.” Both lines look past the arena to the series itself. Neglia sees a circle closing, and Schiller sees an argument about obedience. That fits a synopsis built around taking the Games down from the inside.
The rest of the cast got attention too. Neglia wrote that the film “features some of the best casting of the year”, and that “many of the actors breathe new life into familiar characters” while keeping what made them compelling. He called Glenn Close “a scene-stealer” and said Jesse Plemons is “embodying the spirit of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman.” Hoffman played Plutarch Heavensbee in the earlier films, and Plemons plays the younger version. Whitney Peak plays Lenore Dove Baird, Haymitch’s girlfriend. Zada’s credits include the Amazon series “We Were Liars” and Netflix’s “East of Eden.” The Hollywood Reporter quotes Lionsgate co-president Erin Westerman as saying, when the leads were cast, that the franchise “has long been a launching pad for remarkable young actors” and that Zada and Peak carry that legacy forward. Lionsgate’s official description also names Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Maya Hawke and Kelvin Harrison Jr. Starner agreed on the casting, writing that “Casting is phenomenal” and that Zada “couldn’t be better” in the role.
Zada gets the most specific praise. Nemiroff said she had “high hopes for him after watching We Were Liars” and wrote that “SO much of this movie is on his shoulders, and he soars tackling every ounce of it.” Neglia said Zada captures “the essence of Haymitch with all the sympathy, charm and bitterness Woody Harrelson brought to the role.” Neglia’s colleague Lauren LaMagna called him “heartbreakingly radiant” and added “A star is born role.” That is a lot to put on a newcomer who has to stand in for a franchise favorite.
The pushback is mild. Gavin Spoors, editor-in-chief of FilmHounds, wrote “We’ve seen this all before” but said the “stellar third act pulls the rug out underneath you.” Neglia wrote that Francis Lawrence “continues to find more layers in this familiar structure thematically and stylistically” even as the production and costume design “continue to be dazzling highlights.” LaMagna said the production design “doesn’t let familiar beats get too dull.” Those are notes about novelty, not quality. None of the reactions in the Variety, Hollywood Reporter or TheWrap roundups is negative. Lionsgate set the terms for these posts, so the sample is still a controlled one. Full reviews will decide whether the praise holds once the embargo lifts.
What Do You Think? Is a set of premiere-night social posts enough for you to believe the “best in the franchise” talk, or do you wait for the full reviews? Does the “Rogue One” comparison make you more or less eager to see how Haymitch’s Games end? And is Zada the right choice to follow Harrelson as Haymitch?
See you on the next binge!
