Confirming what’s been rumored, Kieran Culkin is now set to play Caesar Flickerman, host of the Hunger Games — the role inhabited in earlier films by Stanley Tucci — in Lionsgate‘s The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, based on the bestseller by Suzanne Collins.
Culkin joins an ensemble led by Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak, who respectively play Haynith Abernathy and his girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird. Others set include Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, and Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket.
Published March 18, the latest installment in Collins’ dystopian YA book series revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell. The story centers on 16-year-old Haymitch, a clever and resourceful boy from District 12, who’s unexpectedly chosen for this edition of the games, which will feature a deadly twist: twice the number of tributes, with 48 children sent into the arena to battle for their lives.
Francis Lawrence has returned to direct from a script by Billy Ray, with Color Force’s Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson producing, and Cameron MacConomy exec producing. Meredith Wieck and Scott O’Brien are overseeing the project for the studio and Robert Melnik negotiated deals for Lionsgate. Slated for release on November 20, 2026, Sunrise comes on the heels of five films that have grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide.
Coming off his first Oscar nomination and win for Searchlight’s A Real Pain, where he starred opposite filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg, Culkin is otherwise best known for his Emmy-winning performance in HBO’s Succession. Currently, he can be seen on Broadway in a sold-out run of Glengarry Glen Ross with Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr.
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