After yesterday’s announcement of young Haymitch Abernathy in the upcoming prequel The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, we have more casting news on the anticipated film. Per Deadline, McKenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire) is boarding the project as one of District 12’s female tributes.
Grace will play Maysilee Donner, a 16-year-old who comes from District 12’s market area as opposed to the poorer Seam where Haymitch and eventually Katniss Everdeen reside. She was briefly mentioned in Suzanne Collins’ Catching Fire novel as an old friend to Katniss’ mother and Haymitch’s ally during the Quarter Quell Hunger Games.
Grace will star alongside Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak in the film, where Zada will play the young Haymitch and Peak as Haymitch’s girlfriend Lenore Dove Baird, a distant cousin to Rachel Zelger’s Lucy Gray Baird from the previous prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Francis Lawrence returns to the director’s chair for Sunrise on the Reaping after directing every Hunger Games film since Catching Fire. Writing the script for the adaptation is original Hunger Games screenwriter Billy Ray. Producing is Jacobson and Brad Simpson for Color Force with Cameron MacConomy executive producing.
Grace will be seen next in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and Scream 7.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be released on November 20th, 2026.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Bluesky for more movie news and nerd talk.
