Kieran Culkin has been the most recent name announced to join the star-studded cast of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. He will be portraying a younger Caesar Flickerman, the pretentious television host for the Capitol during the commencement of the Hunger Games, taking the place of Stanley Tucci, who first played the role throughout all four original films.

This feature is based on Suzanne Collins’ 2025 bestselling novel of the same name. Taking place twenty-four years before the original trilogy, it explores Haymitch’s own battle in the area during the Second Quarter Quell. In which the gamemakers double the tributes going into the area, turning the number of children from twenty-four into forty-eight. Haymitch will be played by Joseph Zada in his screen debut, with the supporting cast made up of Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, McKenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, and Ralph Fiennes will be portraying a younger President Snow.

The film will be directed by Francis Lawrence, who directed the second through fourth installments of the original films as well as 2023’s The Hunger Games: The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes, from an adapted script by Billy Ray. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson will be returning as producers under the banner of Color Force, and Cameron MacConomy will executive produce.

It will be interesting to see how Culkin portrays Flickerman, but if he takes from his other performances, you can expect Flickerman to be more witty and arrogant to the world around him as ever. We will only see when The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping releases in theaters on November 26th, 2026.