Elle Fanning and Academy Award winner Kieran Culkin have been cast in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

Fanning will star as fashion stylist Effie Trinket, while Culkin has been cast as Cesar Flickerman. Flickerman is the Capitol talk show host previously played by Stanley Tucci.

A prequel to the original trilogy, Sunrise on the Reaping takes place between the events of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) and The Hunger Games (2012). The film will focus on Haymitch Abernathy's participation in the Hunger Games. Abernathy was portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the original trilogy.

Elle Fanning has been offered the role of Effie in ‘THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING'

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— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) April 9, 2025

The Hunger Games franchise has to date grossed over $3.3 billion worldwide. The novel Sunrise on the Reaping by Susanne Collins, released this year, sold 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first week, beating Collins' previous sales records.

Francis Lawrence will return as director, having directed four of the previous instalments.

Fanning is known for her roles in Maleficent (2014), A Complete Unknown (2024), and The Great (2020-2023). Her most recent role is in Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, which received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last week.

Culkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor earlier this year for his role in A Real Pain (2024). He is also known for his work on HBO's Succession (2018-2023) and his role in Home Alone (1990).

Other notable casting announcements include Ralph Fiennes, who has been cast as Panem's President Coriolanus Snow. Snow was portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the original Hunger Games trilogy, and by Tom Blyth in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.