By Rebekah

We already know how Haymitch Abernathy’s Games end. Catching Fire told us back in 2009: an axe, a force field, and a win nobody in the Capitol wanted. Sunrise on the Reaping is the book that makes you sit through the whole thing anyway… and then makes you sit through what comes after.

The movie opens November 20. Between the trailer, the cast list, and a few things the director and stars have let slip, there are real clues about what’s changing. Here’s every difference we’re expecting, each one tied to where we got it. We’ll grade ourselves in public after we’ve seen it.

Where the family stands going in: split. Mom loved the book. Josiah and I (Rebekah) were mostly “meh.” It read a little like fan fiction to us, more than a truly new story. And it leans on an idea the series keeps coming back to, that somehow EVERY year has a rebellion that just barely misses. Dad hasn’t read it yet, so he gets to walk in fresh.

Spoilers for the novel ahead, including the ending. The movie we can’t spoil yet.

1. Characterization

Haymitch is young, and he’s not Woody Harrelson.

Joseph Zada as young Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping — Sixteen, mouthy, and not yet drinking in the corner. Image: Lionsgate

Joseph Zada plays sixteen-year-old Haymitch. That’s the right call. The whole point of the book is meeting the kid before he became the man drinking in the corner at the reaping. Our prediction: the movie leans hard on the charming, mouthy Haymitch of the first half so the second half hurts more.

Katniss and Peeta are coming back.

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are reprising their roles, per reports from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety (E! via NBC). The book’s epilogue jumps forward to after the war, when Haymitch finally tells Katniss and Peeta about his past. Our prediction: that’s their scene, and it’s short. If they show up anywhere else in the movie, that’s a real change.

Maysilee, Lenore Dove, and the Returning District 3 crew.

Joseph Zada and Mckenna Grace as Haymitch and Maysilee Donner in Sunrise on the Reaping — Alliance status: pending. Pin status: very important. Image: Lionsgate

Mckenna Grace plays Maysilee Donner, Whitney Peak plays Lenore Dove Baird, and Maya Hawke and Kelvin Harrison Jr. play a young Wiress and Beetee (Wikipedia). That’s a lot of people we already love (or already watched die) in later books. Our prediction: Maysilee’s alliance with Haymitch gets the most screen time, because the mockingjay pin and its connection to Katniss is too good to skip.

Plutarch, before he was Plutarch.

Jesse Plemons as young Plutarch Heavensbee in Sunrise on the Reaping — Already picking sides. Quietly. Image: Lionsgate

Jesse Plemons plays a young Plutarch Heavensbee, and Ralph Fiennes takes over as President Snow. Book Plutarch is already quietly picking sides. Our guess: the movie makes that more obvious, since audiences know where he ends up.

2. Setting

A bigger arena.

Joseph Zada, Ben Wang, Iona Bell and Mckenna Grace as tributes in Sunrise on the Reaping — Forty-eight tributes, and these four are ours. Image: Lionsgate

The Second Quarter Quell doubles the tributes to forty-eight. The arena in the book is beautiful and poisonous, which is a very Capitol combination. Our prediction: this is where the budget goes, and the trailer’s wide shots back that up.

District 12 gets more time.

Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak as Haymitch and Lenore Dove Baird in Sunrise on the Reaping — The home scenes that make the ending hurt. Image: Lionsgate

The book spends real pages in District 12 before the reaping and after the Games. With a 2-hour-38-minute runtime (more on that below), we think the movie keeps the home scenes with Lenore Dove and Haymitch’s family. They’re what makes the ending work.

3. Plot

Wellie’s death won’t be shown the way the book shows it.

This one is basically confirmed. In the book, Wellie (a twelve-year-old from District 6) is killed while Haymitch is away from camp, and it’s the bloodiest moment in the story. Zada told CinemaBlend, “The only thing we have to do in the movies is make them PG-13” (CinemaBlend). Our prediction: it happens off-screen, and we see Haymitch find her.

A lot got cut.

Francis Lawrence told Polygon the cut was once “three and a half hours long” and admitted, “Oh, the fans are gonna be bummed about that moment” (Netflix Junkie, summarizing Polygon). The final film reportedly runs 2 hours and 38 minutes. Which moment? He didn’t say. Our guess: some of the arena alliance scenes and Capitol prep get trimmed, and the book’s slower stretches before the Games get compressed.

The fire is in the trailer.

The trailer shows Haymitch held back while his house burns with his mother and brother inside (Winter Is Coming). In the book, that’s Snow’s punishment for what Haymitch did in the arena. If it’s in the trailer, it’s in the movie. That’s a bold spoiler to put in a trailer, and it tells us the movie isn’t going to soften the ending.

The ending: faithful, or softened?

Ralph Fiennes as President Snow in Sunrise on the Reaping — Snow, taking things that aren’t his. Image: Lionsgate

The book doesn’t stop at the fire. Snow takes Lenore Dove from Haymitch too, and that’s the moment that turns him into the Haymitch we meet in book one. Our prediction: it stays, and it’s the scene people talk about walking out of the theater. The epilogue with Katniss and Peeta is the movie’s way of letting us breathe afterward.

So… will the book be better?

You know where we usually come down on this. (Book. It’s in the name.) But Francis Lawrence has now directed five of these, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was a pretty faithful movie for a pretty long book. If the 2-hour-38-minute cut keeps the ending intact, this could be one of the closest adaptations in the series.

We’ll be seeing it opening weekend, and the full family verdict is our episode on November 26. Come back to this page after November 20. We’ll mark every prediction right or wrong, right here, and we won’t delete the wrong ones.

Quick facts

Book: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, published March 18, 2025
Movie: November 20, 2026 (theaters and IMAX, Lionsgate) · 2 hours 38 minutes (reported)
Director: Francis Lawrence · Screenplay: Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie
Cast: Joseph Zada (Haymitch Abernathy), Mckenna Grace (Maysilee Donner), Whitney Peak (Lenore Dove Baird), Jesse Plemons (Plutarch Heavensbee), Ralph Fiennes (President Snow), Elle Fanning (Effie Trinket), Kieran Culkin (Caesar Flickerman), Glenn Close (Drusilla Sickle), Maya Hawke (Wiress), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Beetee), Ben Wang (Wyatt Callow), Billy Porter (Magno Stift), Lili Taylor (Mags)
Returning: Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss Everdeen) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark), reported

We’re The Book Is Better Podcast, a family of four comparing book-to-film adaptations, one argument at a time. New episodes every other Thursday. Find us wherever you listen, or come argue with us on Discord.