On March 18th, Suzanne Collins released ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’, a Hunger Games prequel told from the perspective of Haymitch Abernathy during the 2nd quarter quell. When Collins released this book, she announced a corresponding movie set to release in November of 2026. This announcement caused many fans to flood social media with their personal pick on who should play each character based on descriptions given in the book. After finishing the novel myself I started considering who I would want to see play these characters in the movie based on who I saw in my head while reading, prompting me to come up with the following cast list.
Starting the list off strong with two heavily favored fan picks for the character of President Snow and Plutarch Heavensbee who are both considerably younger in this book than they are in the original series. For Snow, I feel Kiefer Sutherland, the son of the actor who played Snow in the original series would be a perfect match. Out of all the fan picks this seems to be the common thread among fans with some saying this is the kind of nepotism they want, which brings me to the fan pick for young Plutarch Heavensbee, who also happens to be the son of the actor who played Heavensbee in the original, Cooper Hoffman.
Continuing down the character list, we have the District 12 tributes, and their capitol-assigned fashion team/mentors. Haymitch is joined by 3 other tributes, Wyatt Callow, Maysilee Donner, and Louella / Loulou in the arena. For these characters, I had actors I pictured in my head while reading that I thought would portray them perfectly mainly based on looks. For Wyatt Callow, I pictured Charlie Bushnell.
For Louella / Loulou I saw Sanai Victoria. Some fans feel that Loulou should be another actress who looks similar to Louella since that is how it is told in the book. If they chose to use two actresses then I would choose Leah Jefferies, because that is who I saw as Loulou while reading.
Since Maysilee Donnor has a twin, Merrilee I pictured McKenna Grace as Maysilee with Kieran Shipka playing Merrilee.
The District 12 capitol assignment team included Drusilla, a young Effie Trinket, with mentors Mags and Wiress who are a good 20+ years younger than they are when Katniss meets them. For Drusilla I chose Lucy Punch mainly due to her performances in roles that I see as having similar personalities to Drusilla. I could see Helena Boham Carter portraying Drusilla perfectly as well.
For a young Effie Trinket, most fans want someone who looks similar to the actor and with that in mind, I pictured her as Anya Taylor Joy.
While reading, I pictured younger Mags looking like the actress and the same with Wiress, leading me to choose Emma Thompson for Mags and Maya Hawke for Wiress.
Next on my list are Beetee and his son Ampert who is reaped as a tribute for District 3 with Snow forcing Beetee to mentor him. For a younger Beetee,1 I can’t picture a more perfect choice than Justice Smith. Again, going based on book descriptions, I think Beetees son Ampert would be best played by Ravi Cabot-Conyers.
Of all the characters mentioned in District 12 the only one I had an immediate fan cast for was a young Burdock Everdeen (Katniss’ dad.) While reading I pictured him as Jacob Tremblay.
The final group of characters in this list are Haymitch and his family which includes his mom and little brother Sid. While reading I pictured Grant Feely as Sid and Sarah Jessica Parker as their mom. Last but not least, Haymitch was the first fan cast in my mind. From the moment they announced the new book I pictured a young Haymitch looking like Ty Simpkins making him the best choice for the role.
Until the cast list for the film ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ is released fans will continue to update their fan casting lists with who they hope to see in the movie. I realize my list is missing a few characters but for those like Magno, Silka, Wellie, and Panache I honestly hope they hire actors who more closely resemble the actual age of their characters like in the original trilogy. Regardless of whether some of the fan casts come true or not, the film remains highly anticipated by fans everywhere.