The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping brings audiences back to the Capitol for one of the franchise’s most harrowing games: Haymitch Abernathy’s. Based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins, the movie will tell the story of the 50th games, 24 years before the original trilogy.

However, while this story is separate from Katniss Everdeen’s, director Francis Lawrence has been open about the similarities between the stories. Unlike the previous prequel, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, this story is completely focused around the actual Hunger Games, following the lead-up and the events in the arena.

As such, it led Lawrence to label it a “return to form” in a recent interview with GamesRadar+, which he was keen to explain. “When I say return to form is that you know I think a lot of people fell in love with that first book and the first movie and I think really the same with Catching Fire, people really loved that book and that movie, and you know the way the trilogy worked,” he explains.

“Things changed with Mockingjay. First, it’s a novel that’s split into two, which makes two very different kinds of stories. The Capitol becomes the arena, so it’s not really games, it becomes more of a sort of a metaphor for the games. And certainly, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a very different kind of story. It’s an origin story of an antagonist, its chapter structure is completely different from the other ones.”

Lawrence joined the franchise to direct Catching Fire, taking the reins from Gary Ross after the first movie. He’s been behind every story on screen since, alongside executive producer Nina Jacobson, and for him Sunrise on the Reaping brought back a very familiar feeling.

“Over the 14 years that I’ve been involved with the franchise, you see and feel how fans feel about books and the movies and things like that, and I feel like this one when I read it just brought me back to the feeling that I had when I got involved doing Catching Fire,” he continues. “You have a protagonist that you can get behind and empathize with, and a certain structure, and there are certain tentpole moments that we are used to in these, whether it’s a reaping or the chariots or the interviews and the games.”

Lawrence adds that this doesn’t mean audiences should go in knowing what to expect as Sunrise on the Reaping heads in some very surprising directions.

“What’s great is that Suzanne upends expectations,” he explains. “So you think you’re in another reaping and then things are different. You think you’re in a chariot sequence that you might have seen before and things are different, and so she’s really kind of genius about it. So you have that return to form, but it’s all done in a new way.”

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters on November 20, 2026. For more upcoming movies, check out our guide to 2026 movie release dates.