‘Yellowstone’ Star Joins ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel—Why Fans Are So Excited!
‘Yellowstone’ star Jefferson White joins Panem—plus what Suzanne Collins says about new book & movie
May the odds be ever in your favor, District 12 Tributes, because on October 16, 2024, Scholastic announced the cover for the brand new Hunger Games book written by best-selling author Suzanne Collins. The highly anticipated prequel novel is set to release in the spring of 2025, with a movie adaptation releasing in the fall of 2026—much to President Snow’s dismay. We’ve grabbed our Mockingjay pins and bows and arrows and ventured back to Panem for the annual Hunger Games and to learn everything you need about the book’s cover, audiobook narrator plot and movie adaptation.
‘Yellowstone’ star Jefferson White to narrate ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’
On February 3, 2025, it was announced that the highly anticipated sequel would be narrated by none other than Yellowstone star Jefferson White.
“It’s an honor to be a small part of a world I’ve loved for so long,” Jefferson said in a press release obtained by Woman’s World. “Suzanne Collins is a genius and it’s equal parts exhilarating and terrifying to be back in Panem.”
On the hit Western show Yellowstone, White plays Jimmy Hurdstram, a former thief and drug cook who gets hired to work at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in an attempt to turn his life around.
“We are beyond thrilled to have the prodigiously talented Jefferson White narrate the audio edition of Sunrise on the Reaping,” Lori Benton, President of Scholastic Audio, said. “With his ability to capture the subtle complexities of characters, Jefferson delivers a dynamic and nuanced performance that will draw listeners deeper into the raw emotion and intensity of the world Suzanne Collins has built. It’s an auditory adventure that you won’t want to miss!”
To hear a clip of White narrating, click here!
The new Hunger Games cover
Four months after Scholastic announced Sunrise on the Reaping, the publishing house decided to release the book’s cover that features a stunning purple background and a combined gold snake and bird with a sunrise creeping in behind them.
“The spiky sun rises on a symbol that will come to mean a lot to Haymitch Abernathy, as well as countless readers,” said David Levithan, VP, Publisher and Editorial Director for Scholastic in a statement obtained by Woman’s World. “Artist Tim O’Brien has created yet another iconic Hunger Games cover—this one symbolically exploring one of the central themes of the series: how conflicting forces can be connected by their common nature, the songbird and the snake springing from the same source.”
What is ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ about?
Sunrise on the Reaping will serve as a prequel set 24 years before the first Hunger Games book. It will follow the tributes of the 50th Hunger Games (or the second Quarter Quell), which fans of the Hunger Games trilogy will remember as the game Haymitch Abernathy competed in.
The press release for the cover confirmed that the newest book will focus on Abernathy and his battle with trying to make it through the games and returning home to the girl he loves.
Says Suzanne Collins in a press release obtained by Woman’s World, “With Sunrise on the Reaping, I was inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.’ The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
When will the movie be released?
As if getting a new Hunger Games book and cover wasn’t enough, Lionsgate also announced that they would be turning the book into a movie.
When asked about the anticipated adaptation, Adam Fogelson, chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said, “We know Hunger Games fans worldwide will be spellbound by where Suzanne has focused this next extraordinary story. The Second Quarter Quell is legendary and looms large over the history of the Games, even into the time of Katniss Everdeen a quarter-century later. Like fans around the globe, we are eagerly anticipating this exciting return to Panem.”
He also added, “Suzanne Collins is a master storyteller and our creative north star. We couldn’t be more fortunate than to be guided and trusted by a collaborator whose talent and imagination are so consistently brilliant.”
The new Hunger Games book is set to release on March 18, 2025, with the movie adaptation coming out on November 20, 2026. Woody Harrelson’s involvement in the new film remains uncertain—he played Haymitch in the franchise’s first four movies.
If you simply cannot wait that long to head back to Panem, all of the four original Hunger Games movies are available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and the hit movie A Ballad of Songbird and Snakes can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video as well.
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