The odds of Jennifer Lawrence reprising her Hunger Games role as Katniss Everdeen were clearly in her favor.
“[It was] unbelievable. It was so crazy because it was the same crew,” Lawrence, 36, said on the Wednesday, October 28, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, confirming her franchise return in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping with Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson. “It was the same camera guys, the same AD who I’ve worked with a million times too ‘cause I love him, and Josh and Woody. It was so emotional.”
She continued, “Josh and I didn’t walk to the bathroom without our arms around each other. Like, it was so beautiful.”
Lawrence scored her breakout role as Katniss in 2012’s The Hunger Games, which was adapted from Suzanne Collins’ bestselling YA dystopian novels. She reprised her role in three sequel films alongside Hutcherson, 34, as Peeta Mellark and Harrison, 65, playing Haymitch Abernathy.
A new prequel flick, highlighting teen Haymitch’s time in the Games arena, debuts in theaters next month. Joseph Zada will assume Harrison’s beloved role.
“It’s a very big, important character, and they needed to get it right. So obviously, they put me through the wringer a bit,” Zada, 21, told Vanity Fair in June 2025. “I’m glad they did because I learned so much in that period of time. Now, I’m just so excited to know that I’m going to be in safe hands.”
According to Zada, he even received a “nice little message” from Harrison when he was cast as a younger version of Haymitch.
“[It was] from Woody’s niece, I think. He doesn’t have a phone,” Zada noted at the time. “I’m sure I’ll speak to him eventually, but apparently he’s very happy for me.”
As for Lawrence, Hutcherson and Harrison, it is presently unknown how they will appear onscreen in Sunrise on the Reaping. The cast have long been open to reprising their roles after meaningful experiences making the original movies.
“[The director, Gary Ross] cried in my audition, so I was like, ‘This seems like a good sign,’” Lawrence said on Wednesday’s podcast episode. “Twilight had just come out and everybody saw what that was. And so [I really wondered] how is this going to change my life and my acting career? And then it did forever.”
Lawrence, Hutcherson and Harrison costarred alongside Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland, Willow Shields and Liam Hemsworth, the last of whom played Katniss’ other love interest, Gale.
“I was Team Gale, even after he killed my sister,” the actress quipped to podcast host Alex Cooper. “I can’t say [if that will cause controversy] because I said that I was Team Jeremiah from The Summer I Turned Pretty, and the level of hate that I got was bigger than any controversy I’ve ever been involved in in my life … I thought it was innocent; people were like, ‘You should die.’”
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters Friday, November 20.
