Before the release of Sunrise on the Reaping this November, the entire Hunger Games series will return to theaters. The limited showings from Fathom Events will take place later this summer and only last a week. So who is volunteering to take on the marathon?
The event will last five days, with each film only playing on the big screen for one day. The release schedule is as follows:
- Sept. 3 – The Hunger Games
- Sept. 4 – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- Sept. 5 – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1
- Sept. 6 – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2
- Sept. 7 – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
As The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a prequel, there is an argument that the event should have screened it on the first day.
The films, which adapt the book series by author Suzanne Collins, began with 2012’s The Hunger Games. The movie starred Jennifer Lawrence in the central role of Katniss Everdeen, a young woman who volunteers to fight in the titular games to save her sister and finds herself becoming the symbol of hope in a changing political landscape. The film also starred Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, and more. The second film, Catching Fire, was released in 2013. The final book in the original trilogy, Mockingjay, was split into two films that were released in 2014 and 2015. Collins published the prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes in 2020; it was adapted as a film in 2023. It starred Rachel Zegler as the new protagonist alongside Tom Blyth as a younger version of Coriolanus Snow, the main antagonist of the original trilogy.
Sunrise on the Reaping is the second prequel movie, set to be released on Nov. 20. Like the book of the same name, it expands on the story of Haymitch (Harrelson’s character in the films), detailing his experience in the 50th Hunger Games. Joseph Zada will play Haymitch in the prequel, with a supporting cast that includes McKenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, and Ralph Fiennes as Snow. Both Lawrence and Hutcherson are set to reprise their roles, suggesting scenes set after the events of the original trilogy.
