Why Lionsgate Is Betting on Legacy Stars to Fuel the Next 'Hunger Games' Era

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson will return as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the casting this week, noting the pair will likely appear in a flash-forward sequence.

The book includes a scene where grown Peeta and Katniss listen to Haymitch Abernathy recount his own Hunger Games experience (via Deadline). The beat will likely be a bridge between timelines.

The franchise is on pretty firm footing. The first five Hunger Games films made more than $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office (via The Hollywood Reporter). Suzanne Collins' latest novel, Sunrise on the Reaping, sold over 1.5 million copies in its first week. Safe to say, the audience is still there.

Lionsgate isn't relying solely on Lawrence and Hutcherson's return. The expanded ensemble includes Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Elle Fanning as a younger Effie Trinket, and Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman. They're taking on roles originally played by Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks, and Stanley Tucci.

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What Filmmakers Can Learn

We've talked about how successful nostalgia projects don't rely only on what is familiar. Characters need to be placed in new situations that resonate with today's viewers. Don't just recycle characters and settings or the coolest part of an old project. Use the original as a launching pad to explore contemporary themes through established characters.

For example, The Devil Wears Prada 2 screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna said she found her sequel opportunity because "the world that these characters live in is changing so dramatically and so rapidly." The first movie hadn't yet seen the death of print journalism; that landscape is totally different now.

With Creed, director Ryan Coogler honored the Rocky legacy while showing that the best way to respect the past is to repurpose an old story and let it evolve through fresh voices and perspectives.

Finally, take sitcom revivals. Some of them flourish with fresh takes, while others see cancellation in a few episodes if they're tired and too similar. (Will & Grace successfully returned by addressing current LGBTQ+ issues, while Fuller House felt recycled.)

Successful nostalgia-driven films have a pretty simple formula. You mix emotion with innovation and take familiar characters and settings and give them a modern sheen. Just don't lose the soul of what made the original work.

Look at the best nostalgic movies for some examples.

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What Are the Risks?

The danger of legacy casting and too much nostalgia is fatigue. Projects that lean too heavily on what worked before can feel like imitation. Sometimes a cameo (like here, in the case of Peeta and Katniss) can feel like a token nod, an easy win with fans, unless it's handled well.

I'm thinking of a tiny moment from Rogue One as a good example. The main characters are exploring Jedha and bump into a character named Dr. Evazan. It's a very brief flash of a man who will only be familiar to die-hard Star Wars fans, because he also has a quick moment in the cantina from A New Hope.

Does it make sense for him to be in another commerce hub? Totally. Is he distracting? No, he's on screen for literally a second. But it makes fans happy.

Now compare that with something like Deadpool and Wolverine. Cameos abound, and they're not subtle. They're often played up for laughs here (hi, Human Torch), so they work in this ridiculous world, but those moments satirize other heavy-handed cameos that are taken seriously in other projects.

Those weak examples are distracting and don't work as well because they pull audiences out of the story to recognize the reference rather than serving the narrative. Case in point, Martian Manhunter in Zack Snyder's Justice League.

So we're hoping the moment with Katniss and Peeta makes sense and can be counted among the strong examples.

How Sunrise on the Reaping Might Work

The story follows Haymitch Abernathy during the 50th Hunger Games, 24 years before Katniss volunteered as tribute.

If Lawrence and Hutcherson appear in a flash-forward epilogue as the book suggests, they could be witnesses to Haymitch's story without pulling too much focus.

Sunrise on the Reaping comes to theaters Nov. 20, 2026.