Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are going back to the Hunger Games

Hunger Games stars, Jennifer Lawrence(Katniss Everdeen), and Josh Hutcherson(Peeta Mellark), are returning to the Hunger Games franchise as they will make a cameo in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel movie ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ coming out November 20th 2026.

Sunrise on the Reaping is the newest prequel to the Hunger Games series, taking place during the 50th Hunger games which is Haymitch Abernathy’s games and one of the bloodiest games in Hunger Games history. The movie stars Joseph Zada who plays Haymitch Abernanthy in the movie alongside Mckenna Grace(Maysilee Donner), Elle Fanning(Effie Trinket), and Maya Hawke(Wiress). This book is the second book in the prequel series following the Ballads of Songbirds and Snakes, the story of President Snow and how the Hunger Games started. 

It was confirmed by the Hollywood Report that Lawrence and Hutcherson will be returning as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Millark, though no details have been disclosed about their return and how the director of the Hunger Games series, Francis Lawrence, plans on using the iconic pair. 

What we do know(spoiler alert if you haven’t read Sunrise on the Reaping) is that at the end of the book, Haymitch is telling Katniss and Peeta about his Hunger Games as before this book, the fans didn’t know about what Haymitch’s games were like nor on if he ever mentioned to Katniss and Peeta about his Games. We also know that at the end of Mockingjay Part 2, Katniss and Peeta are married and have two kids, so when we see them in the new movie, they will no longer be star crossed lovers but forever lovers. 

Since the last Hunger Games movie that Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson partake in, they’ve been wanting to do another Hunger Games movie. In a 2023 article with Teen Vogue, Lawrence said that she’s open to reprising her role as Katniss Everdeen again. 

“Oh my god-totally,” Lawrence said when asked if she would ever play Katniss Everdeen again. “If Katniss could ever come back into my life, 100 percent.”

In a recent interview following the announcement of the new Hunger Games book, Hutcherson jumped on the same boat as Lawrence by wanting to reprise his role as Peeta Mellark. At a FR Convention in France, he was asked if he would be up for acting in another Hunger Games movie, this was his response: “I would happily play Peeta again, the Hunger Games world is incredible.”

He continued on by saying, “I think Peeta’s an incredible person to bring to life. I’m curious to know what happens between when they have their family and where the story ends, just to understand what happened in the world, how they got to that place. But I’m down. If you can talk to Suzanne Collins and tell her to write a book, I’m in. Sign me up.”

Someone should go back in time to when that interview took place and tell Hutcherson that he’s about to play Peeta again. 

As someone who’s been a long time Hunger Games fan and a full time supporter of “Everlark”(Everdeen and Mellark), I am so excited to see them reprise their role in the new Hunger Games movie. When I read the book, I was so excited to see Katniss and Peeta at the end of the book and now I get to see them again a decade after Mockingjay Part 2 came out. Lawrence and Hutcherson are also still great friends to this day and Mockingjay Part 2 was the last project they’ve worked on together, so it’s just going to be awesome to see them play the roles that they are most well known in. Even though we probably won’t get any details about their cameo and how long of a scene they will be in, this is still big news for the Hunger Games fans and will make this movie bigger than it already will be.