Following in the footsteps of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman is an impossible task. Yet Jesse Plemons feels like the right character actor to play Plutarch Heavensbee in the next Hunger Games movie.
Lionsgate announced Friday that Plemons will star as Plutarch in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Plemons joins a cast that includes Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy, Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird, and Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner.
In the original Hunger Games trilogy, Plutarch Heavensbee first arrives in Catching Fire as the Head Gamemaker, replacing Seneca Crane. By the end of Catching Fire, it is revealed that Plutarch has been a double agent, working as a leader of the rebellion in the war against the Capitol. Hoffman portrayed Plutarch in Catching Fire and Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2. Hoffman died in February 2014, but the Oscar winner had completed most of his scenes in the Mockingjay films.
Plemons has emerged as a well-respected character actor. Plemons earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance in The Power of the Dog and scored an Emmy nod for his memorable turn in Fargo season 2. Plemons and Hoffman worked together in 2012 on Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, with Plemons playing Hoffman’s son.
Plutarch Heavensbee.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping – in theaters November 20, 2026. pic.twitter.com/M84vFvBYGA
Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins penned Sunrise on the Reaping, the second prequel to the original trilogy following The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Released last month, the book broke sales records after selling more than 1.5 million English copies in its first week.
The film adaptation, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, will be directed by franchise veteran Francis Lawrence from a script by Billy Ray. Lawrence has directed every Hunger Games adaptation besides the first movie. Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson will produce, while Cameron MacConomy will executive produce.
The five Hunger Games movies have grossed a combined $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.