Huzzah! 'Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' Has Amassed One Hell of a Cast

Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping didn’t quite land for me. Suzanne Collins’ latest was relentlessly bleak and lacked the compelling arc that made Coriolanus Snow’s transformation in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes so captivating. That said, I’m weirdly excited to see what Francis Lawrence does with it onscreen. A strong cast can elevate a story, even one constrained by the preordained events of The Hunger Games, and to Lawrence’s credit, he’s assembled a hell of a cast.

The latest addition is Elle Fanning, who feels like the perfect choice for a younger Effie Trinket, originally portrayed by Elizabeth Banks. Honestly, I’m surprised Fanning hasn’t already played a younger version of or the daughter of a character played by Banks. It just fits.

As we previously reported, they’ve also cast the perfect guy to play Plutarch Heavensbee: Jesse Plemons, who in many ways feels like this generation’s Philip Seymour Hoffman, the original Plutarch. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes has been cast as President Snow, a smart bit of continuity that bridges Tom Blyth’s younger Snow and Donald Sutherland’s iconic version. Mags Flanagan, winner of the 16th Hunger Games and memorably portrayed by Lynn Cohen as an octogenarian in Catching Fire, will be played here by Lili Taylor. Maya Hawke is taking on the role of Wiress, originally brought to life by Amanda Plummer, also in Catching Fire.

The younger cast is a mix of fresh and familiar faces. Joseph Zada stars as a young Haymitch Abernathy (later played by Woody Harrelson), while McKenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), still a standout for me from 2017’s Gifted, will portray Maysilee Donner, one of the many tragic figures in the story. That includes Lenore Dove Baird, played by Whitney Peak, probably best known as Zoya from the Gossip Girl reboot.

It’s a stacked ensemble, and if Francis Lawrence can inject even a flicker of hope into an otherwise grim chapter, we might be in for a surprisingly decent film.