‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ Finds Its President Snow

Ralph Fiennes, our favorite noseless villain from the “Harry Potter” films, has officially been cast as President Coriolanus Snow in “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.” Fiennes has a solid villain resume: he chilled audiences in “Schindler’s List,” served up unsettling precision in “The Menu,” played a ruthless commander in “Coriolanus,” and brought eerie calm to “Red Dragon.” Talk about inspired casting. The man practically has “cold-blooded political tyrant” down to an art.

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Based on the book of the same name by Suzanne Collins, this prequel film picks up 24 years before Katniss volunteered as tribute, focusing on the 50th Hunger Games, a.k.a. the Second Quarter Quell. If that rings a bell, it’s because this is the year Haymitch Abernathy (yes, that Haymitch) won the Games. In the prequel, Joseph Zada’s stepping into the younger version of the whiskey-loving mentor, and the film promises a deeper look at Panem’s Capitol chaos long before the Girl on Fire lit the place up (Business Insider).

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A Tribute-Worthy Cast

The cast lineup is stacked. We’re talking Whitney Peak as District 12’s Lenore Dove Baird, Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner (that name should sound very familiar), Jesse Plemons as a younger Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Ben Wang as tribute Wyatt Callow, and Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan. So yeah, we’re eating.

Fiennes steps into the role made famous by Donald Sutherland and most recently played by Tom Blyth in the previous prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” But this version of Snow? He’s older, sharper, and more dangerous than ever. Producer Nina Jacobson said, “We wanted to honor Donald Sutherland by having one of this generation’s greatest actors play President Snow 24 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena,” per Variety.

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Mark Your Calendars

Francis Lawrence (who has worked on every film since “Catching Fire”) is back in the director’s chair, with Billy Ray handling the script. With that combo and this cast? Consider us fully reaped. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters November 20, 2026, and we can’t wait to see how this story plays out on-screen; especially with the Quarter Quell stakes, a fresh tribute lineup, and Snow’s political games just starting to sharpen their teeth.

The bottom line: if Ralph Fiennes says you have to go into the “Hunger Games” arena… you’re probably not making it out alive.

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