Sunrise On The Reaping Director Francis Lawrence Has Secrets About The Hunger Games Prequel's Key Relationship [Exclusive]

"The Hunger Games: The Sunrise on the Reaping" is coming to theaters soon, and fans immersed in the world of the Hunger Games — specifically, the transformed North American continent known as Panem under a totalitarian regime — will finally get to see Suzanne Collins' 2025 book play out on screen. I recently spoke to Francis Lawrence, the director of every single Hunger Games adaptation aside from the first one (which was helmed by Gary Ross), about one of the most essential bonds in this story: namely, the one between our protagonist Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) and his fellow District 12 tribute Maysilee Donner (McKenna Grace).

As Lawrence revealed, he and his actors kept some things close to the chest. "There were a lot of conversations with both Joe and McKenna because we started with the games, and so a lot of our lead-up to shooting was rehearsals of fights, then action sequences and things in Spain where we were shooting," the director said. "And so I had the two of them a lot. And so we would just talk constantly about the two of them." He continued: 

"Quite honestly, I think the three of us have some secrets about their relationship. I've just always found it really interesting that when she sees him, she slams the door in his face and they've known each other their entire lives. And I think there's probably other elements, too, to their story that Suzanne hasn't written about. So we all have our own secrets that we use to get underneath what the characters are and how they relate to one another and why they may have conflict and why they bond and all of that. So that stuff's really fun. And they're great at it because they're both great actors."

If you're about to yell "spoiler alert!" at me, calm down; the relationship between Haymitch and Maysilee is actually revealed in Suzanne Collins' first literary sequel, "Catching Fire," which was published back in 2009. As that trilogy's heroes and District 12 tributes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark (played on-screen by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson) prepare to head back into the arena for the Third Quarter Quell — a super-evil edition of the Hunger Games, which puts former victors back into the arena — they watch footage of the 50th Games, where Haymitch and Maysilee formed an alliance against double the number of tributes. That's how they watch Maysilee's bitter end: "Haymitch runs for her, anyway. He arrives only in time to watch the last of a flock of candy pink birds, equipped with long, thin beaks, skewer her through the neck. He holds her hand while she dies."

Maysilee is also important to Katniss in a fully unexpected way. As Peeta points out, her mockingjay pin came from the Donner family, and Maysilee's abandoned twin Merrilee (the mother of Katniss's friend Madge), who "spends half her life in bed immobilized with terrible pain, shutting out the world." Katniss continues:

"I think of how I never realized that she and my mother shared this connection. Of Madge showing up in that snowstorm to bring the painkiller for Gale. Of my mockingjay pin and how it means something completely different now that I know that its former owner was Madge's aunt, Maysilee Donner, a tribute who was murdered in the arena."

The entire premise of the Hunger Games is disgusting on several levels, but something particularly insidious about them — and something that Suzanne Collins explores in each and every book she writes — is the fact that the kids pitted against each other in the arena end up forming bonds. With four District 12 tributes in Haymitch and Maysilee's games instead of two, Haymitch initially tries to avoid any alliances. But the youngest of the group, Louella McCoy (Molly McCann in the upcoming film), already has a long-standing relationship with him characterized by Haymitch's protective feelings for the girl. When Louella ends up at the center of a tragic accident, the sickest thing in the entire Hunger Games franchise to date happens, Louella is replaced by a brainwashed lookalike, Lou Lou (Iona Bell), who's forced to compete in her stead. 

Francis Lawrence told me that he "[mapped out] the relationships" between Haymitch and his fellow tributes, and because Haymitch and Louella were playground "sweethearts," he made sure to sketch that out. Beyond that, though, he pointed out the parallels between Louella and Katniss, both of whom are young brunettes that favor braids and find themselves in the arena. "There's the connections that if you know the other stories and movies, that you might make of Louella with the braid and Katniss, calling her sweetheart, and calling Katniss sweetheart and all of those kinds of things, which are a bit Easter eggy if you don't really know the books and things, but all that stuff is fun," Lawrence mused.

"The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping" arrives in theaters on November 20, 2026 — and you'll see all of these relationships play out on the big screen then.