Jennifer Lawrence confirms return as Katniss in Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping, out 20 November

The film

Sunrise on the Reaping follows the young Haymitch Abernathy, played by Joseph Zada, starting on the morning of the reaping for the fiftieth Hunger Games, which is also known as the Second Quarter Quell. It is set about 24 years before the story of the first film. It is directed by Francis Lawrence, who has directed every film in the series except the first, and the screenplay is by Billy Ray, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins.

The film is mainly set decades before the events that made Katniss and Peeta known, so their parts are expected to be small. Reports expect at least some of the film to flash forward to the time when they were last seen, in a District 12 that had been freed, where they were married and raising children. The novel ends with an epilogue in which Haymitch tells Katniss and Peeta about his past, which suggests how the film might use the two actors. Neither Lawrence nor Hutcherson appears in the trailer, according to one outlet, and the studio has not said how they will be used.

It has been about ten years since The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, which was the last film in which Katniss and Peeta were seen. The previous film in the series, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was also a prequel, set at the 10th Hunger Games and following a young Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth. Sunrise on the Reaping goes further into the past of the games with a younger Haymitch.

Haymitch Abernathy is the mentor who was played by Woody Harrelson in the earlier films, and the new film shows him as a teenager in the arena. A Quell, in the story, is a special edition of the Games that comes every 25 years, with its own twist, and the fiftieth, the Second Quarter Quell, is the one in which Haymitch is reaped. The film uses the same world as the earlier ones, with the Capitol, the districts and the Games, but at an earlier point in its history.

The film has been drawing attention in search trends in India after the podcast remarks and the news about the return of the original stars. Its release date, 20 November, is three weeks away. Fans will have to wait to see whether the return is a brief appearance or something longer, and whether Harrelson is part of it.

Release details for India, such as the languages and the number of screens, have not been announced in the reports used for this article.