Netflix’s Stranger Things may be coming to an end this year, but Maya Hawke has already lined up her next franchise. The actress has been cast in a supporting role in the next Hunger Game movie, Sunrise on the Reaping.
Via Entertainment Weekly, Hawke will portray Wiress, the winner of the 49th Hunger Games who was previously portrayed by Amanda Plummer in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Sunrise on the Reaping takes place two decades prior to the films starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. In the new film, Wiress is the mentor for District 12’s tributes, including Haymitch Abernathy, the character played by Woody Harrelson in the original movies. Joseph Zada has already been cast as young Haymitch.
Wiress and Haymitch aren’t the only familiar characters returning for the prequel. Mufasa: The Lion King‘s : Kelvin Harrison Jr. will play Beetee, who was portrayed by Jeffrey Wright in the previous films. Beetee had already won the Hunger Games prior to the events of the current movie, but his punishment for that feat is that he has to mentor his own 12-year-old son, Ampert, who has been reaped as one of the tributes.
Jesse Plemons was recently cast as Plutarch Heavensbee, a character who was originated by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Whitney Peak will play Haymitch’s lover, Lenore Dove Baird. Lili Taylor is reportedly portraying Mags, another former Hunger Games winner who was previously played by Lynn Cohen.
Author Suzanne Collins released her Sunrise on the Reaping novel earlier this year, and it was greeted by very impressive sales numbers. Francis Lawrence, who has directed all of the Hunger Game films except the first one, will return for Sunrise on the Reaping. Billy Ray, who co-wrote the first Hunger Games, is writing the script for the film.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will hit theaters on November 20, 2026.
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.