New Look at Kieran Culkin’s Caesar Flickerman and Jesse Plemons’ Plutarch Proves ‘Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ Has Some Major Shoes to Fill

Fresh images from ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping‘ are keeping the fan hype at a steady boil, and the latest reveals Kieran Culkin and Jesse Plemons in two of the film’s most consequential supporting roles.

Lionsgate shared the new look, showing Culkin as Caesar Flickerman and Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, two characters the franchise’s original actors made iconic, and both new takes are already generating intense reaction online.

Culkin steps into the role made famous by Stanley Tucci, playing Caesar Flickerman, the slimy and charismatic host of the Hunger Games’ television broadcast. The character functions as Panem’s most visible propaganda instrument, using charm and wit to package the horror of the Games for mass entertainment.

It is a role that demands a performer who can make cruelty feel palatable, and Culkin, coming off his Emmy and Golden Globe-winning turn in ‘Succession,’ brings exactly the kind of coiled, unnerving energy the part needs.

In the film, Plutarch Heavensbee resides in District 12, filming the reaping of the Tributes there. Plemons takes on the role previously held by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played Plutarch as the Head Gamemaker and rebellion leader in ‘Catching Fire’ and ‘Mockingjay.’ His casting is one of the film’s most emotionally loaded choices, with Hoffman’s performance in those later installments carrying a gravity that even casual fans will feel the weight of.

The book ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ takes place in Panem on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, 24 years before the events in the original ‘Hunger Games.’ That timeline positions both Plutarch and Caesar at earlier, more formative stages of their careers, giving the film room to explore who these figures were before audiences first encountered them.

The wider ensemble assembled for this installment is genuinely stacked. Joseph Zada leads as the young Haymitch Abernathy, with Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, and Lili Taylor as Mags Flanagan. The breadth of recognizable talent drawn to the project is a signal of how seriously Lionsgate and the creative team are treating this chapter of the expanded universe.

Haymitch is portrayed as one of four tributes from District 12, the most impoverished and downtrodden district, who leads a rebellion against Gamemakers during the Games themselves. That central story is the emotional core that all the surrounding characters, including Caesar’s media packaging and Plutarch’s background scheming, will orbit around.

‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ is being directed by Francis Lawrence, who has helmed every franchise installment since ‘Catching Fire,’ working from a screenplay by Billy Ray. The film is scheduled for release on November 20, 2026. With the ensemble revelations coming steadily and the fan response consistently enthusiastic, Panem’s return to the big screen is looking like one of the year’s strongest closing-stretch events.

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