At the beginning of the month, Suzanne Collins, author of the wildly successful series, The Hunger Games, thrilled fans around the world by announcing that she will be releasing a new book in the Panem universe. Book five, titled Sunrise on the Reaping, will be published on March 18, 2025 and will revolve around a young Haymitch Abernathy. It will also be adapted into a movie, with a release date of November 20, 2026.
It has been sixteen years since readers first met Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch in The Hunger Games, the novel that defined the young adult dystopian fiction genre. To prepare for the upcoming new book, we’ve compiled this comprehensive refresher on our favorite Hunger Games mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. Please note that there are some spoilers ahead.
What is the newest Hunger Games book?
Currently, there are three books in the original trilogy and one prequel. Next March, fans will get another prequel called Sunrise on the Reaping. This novel will take place twenty-four years before the start of the original trilogy, during the 50th Hunger Games. Haymitch Abernathy will be the main character, as the book will explain how he came to be victor and what happened to him after he won.
Collins famously only writes when she “has something to say.” Sunrise on the Reaping will explore philosopher David Hume’s ideas about implicit submission, in which “the many are governed by the few.” It will also challenge readers to think about propaganda and media narratives in defining what is reality and what is fake news.
Who is Haymitch in the Hunger Games?
In The Hunger Games, the first book of the trilogy, readers meet Haymitch, a middle-aged man who is more interested in finding his next drink than in his job with mentoring District 12 tributes. Per the rules of Panem, all Hunger Games victors automatically become mentors to the current year’s tributes from their home district. Originally from the Seam, the poorest neighborhood in District 12, Haymitch won his Hunger Games twenty-four years prior to the events of the book. Since then, he has mentored forty-six tributes and witnessed their gruesome deaths each year. Being an unwilling participant in their murders, as well as the catalyst for the government-sanctioned murders of his own family years ago, is why Haymitch is almost always drunk.
A reluctant mentor, Haymitch’s first piece of advice to Katniss and her fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark, in The Hunger Games is simply to “stay alive.” Later, he counsels Katniss to not run for any weapons at the Cornucopia when they are first released into the Hunger Games arena and develops an unusual strategy with Peeta to increase Katniss’s chances of being the victor that year. At the end of The Hunger Games, Haymitch urges Katniss to pretend to be madly in love with Peeta, so they can present the pair’s almost-suicide as an act of love rather than rebellion.
In Catching Fire, Haymitch struggles with withdrawal as alcohol is severely limited in District 12. When they hear that the 25th Hunger Games tributes will be reaped from past victors, he trains with Katniss and Peeta and struggles at first to keep up. As the only living female tribute from District 12, Katniss is automatically entered into the 25th Hunger Games. When Haymitch’s name is called, Peeta volunteers and enters himself instead. At the end of the book, Haymitch is in the aircraft that pulls Katniss, but not Peeta, from the arena.
Haymitch returns in Mockingjay, which concludes The Hunger Games trilogy. He works with past victors like Katniss and Finnick Odair as well as District 13 to successfully overthrow the Capitol. In the new government, he saves Effie Trinket from execution and is the tiebreaker in a proposal to hold a final Hunger Games with the children of the Capitol power players. Ultimately, he aligns himself with Katniss and votes yes. In the epilogue of Mockingjay, readers learn that Haymitch resides in Victors’ Village in District 12 with Peeta and Katniss. Although he doesn’t become sober, he develops a new interest in raising geese.
How did Haymitch win his Hunger Games?
At the age of sixteen, Haymitch was one of four tributes whose names were selected at Reaping. Although each district typically contributes two victims – one boy, one girl – to the arena, for the 50th Hunger Games, the rules were changed to double the number of tributes. Haymitch, a girl named Maysilee Donner, and two other tributes who are currently unknown represented District 12.
In the middle of the Games, Haymitch discovered that the arena that the competitors were in is surrounded by a force field. This force field made escape from the arena impossible, but it also gave him an idea. When it was only him and another tribute left, Haymitch stood in front of the force field and waited for the other to attack. When she threw her ax, he ducked and it hit the forcefield, rebounding back and killing her instantly.
Why did Haymitch’s family get killed?
The point of the Hunger Games was to humiliate and control the districts. Therefore, Haymitch’s clever use of the arena, weaponizing this instrument of punishment on live television, made the game runners, and by extension, the Capitol look like fools. Two weeks after Haymitch won the Hunger Games, President Snow had Haymitch’s mother, younger brother, and girlfriend killed as a reminder to the victor – and the other districts – that they were still in charge.
Who is Haymitch in love with?
Readers know that sixteen-year-old Haymitch had a girlfriend when he was reaped. Currently, we don’t know anything else about her, including her name. However, as Collins’s upcoming release will focus solely on the events during and after the 50th Hunger Games, more information on this mysterious love interest will be revealed in March 2025.
Adult Haymitch is described as having grey hair and olive skin, which makes his appearance similar to that of Katniss Everdeen and her best friend, Gale Hawthorne. However, a sixteen-year-old Haymitch was called a “looker” with dark curly hair and bright eyes. In the movie adaptations, he is played by Woody Harrelson and has blond hair and blue eyes.
Why did Haymitch choose Katniss over Peeta?
The laws of the Hunger Games stipulate that there can only be one victor. With this rule and limited resources in mind, Haymitch’s strategy was to focus on keeping Katniss alive. He chose Katniss over Peeta because she was physically stronger and a better fighter, but also because Peeta was in love with her. Despite telling Katniss that he will support Peeta in the 75th Hunger Games, at the end of Catching Fire, he again chooses Katniss when he rescues only her from the arena, leaving the boy to be captured and brainwashed by the Capitol. He, along with others, made this decision because of Katniss’s importance as a symbol to the revolution. However, it’s a decision that hurt Haymitch deeply, as he confessed that he secretly liked Peeta better. In the end, it’s clear that both Katniss and Peeta have become family to him, as they live out the rest of their lives as neighbors in District 12.