Hunger Games: Will Tom Blyth Return as Snow in the Haymitch Movie?

Will Sunrise on the Reaping connect to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes?

By Jenna Anderson

The next Hunger Games story is officially on the horizon, with Scholastic Books surprise announcing The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping on Thursday morning. Set to be released in the spring of 2025, Sunrise on the Reaping will expand upon the events of the 50th Hunger Games, during which Haymitch Abernathy became District 12's first male victor. Just hours after the book announcement, Lionsgate confirmed that Sunrise on the Reaping is also getting a film adaptation, which will be released in theaters in the fall of 2026. As fans begin to fancast young Haymitch, and emotionally prepare themselves for the emotional devastation Sunrise on the Reaping is sure to bring, one question has emerged — could the film adaptation serve as a sort of sequel to 2023's The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? More specifically, could we see Tom Blyth reprise his role as Coriolanus Snow from that first prequel film?

Sunrise on the Reaping is set in the middle of the established lore of the Hunger Games franchise, between the 10th Hunger Games (during which a young Snow mentors and then falls into a tragic love affair with District 12 victor Lucy Gray Baird) brought to life in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and the 74th and 75th Hunger Games (during which District 12's Katniss Everdeen become co-victor and an unlikely symbol of rebellion) in the main series of books and films. Snow has played a massive role in both of those stories, with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes kickstarting his fall from grace as a young adult (played by Blyth), and The Hunger Games trilogy showing his dictatorship over Panem as an elderly man (played by Donald Sutherland). While it has been safe to assume that a direct sequel to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is not in the cards, Blyth has expressed his openness to return to the role of Snow in any capacity, and further chronicle the character's descent into darkness.

"It would be really cool to keep digging into that story, and I do think fans feel this too," Blyth told ScreenRant earlier this year. "I think they were very excited to reignite the world, and I think people feel like within that reigniting, there's more to do. There are more stories to delve into. I do think there's more to Coriolanus' story to delve into, whether he's the lead character or whether he's a periphery character and we look at someone else's story. But I think it'd be fascinating to see his continued rise to power and what happens along the way."

That brings us to Sunrise on the Reaping, a story that — based on what we already know from the franchise's second and third books, Catching Fire and Mockingjay — is sure to involve Snow in a significant way. As explained in a single-chapter interlude about the 50th Hunger Games in Catching Fire, Haymitch was able to win by manipulating the force field surrounding the games, an action that was thought to have reflected poorly on Panem's ultra-wealthy Capitol. As a result, Snow ordered Haymitch's mother, brother, and girlfriend to be killed, which not only made an example of Haymitch, but led him to spiral into alcoholism in the ensuing years.

While Snow's order to kill Haymitch's loved ones could certainly be carried out in the Sunrise on the Reaping movie without seeing him onscreen, it would be powerful to have him directly appear in the movie. (Plus, there's no telling what expanded role he might have in the actual text of Sunrise on the Reaping, beyond the lore from the existing books.) That brings us to the question of whether or not Blyth could reprise his role as Snow in Sunrise on the Reaping, even as the character will be several decades older than when we saw him in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Realistically, Blyth returning would be easier than theoretically bringing back Sutherland and de-aging him in some way, especially since the latter actor would be close to 90 years old by the time Sunrise on the Reaping begins filming. It certainly wouldn't be the first or last time a project has cast or brought back an actor and aged them up with prosthetic makeup, with Zack Snyder's Watchmen and a handful of Peggy Carter's appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe being among modern mainstream examples. 

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The return of Blyth would also help bridge the gap between the two extremes we've already met Snow in, providing a bit of closure for fans who wanted to see a bit more of his villainous turn after The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The Hunger Games franchise has had a unique gift for echoing elements of its history across decades of canon, and there's no reason why Sunrise on the Reaping can't keep up the trend with Snow.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be released on March 18, 2025, followed by the film adaptation on November 20, 2026.

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