We were already looking forward to seeing Elle Fanning kicking ass on an alien planet in Predator: Badlands. Now the A Complete Unknown actress is adding another well-known franchise to her resume, this time with a role we know a lot more about going in: she’ll play Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, a flamboyant character memorably played by Elizabeth Banks in the original Hunger Games movies.
As Variety reports, this younger version of Effie is still climbing the ladder in Panem. In Sunrise, she’ll be the stylist for District 12 Tribute Haymitch Abernathy, played here by Joseph Zada. (In the main Hunger Games movies, he was played by Woody Harrelson.)
Fanning is just the latest big name to join the Sunrise cast. Its main characters—Zada as Haymitch and Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird—are played by up-and-comers, but there are plenty of immediately recognizable faces also along for the ride, including Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, and Lili Taylor as Mags.
Other cast members include Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee, Ben Wang as Wyatt, Molly McCann as Louella, and Iona Bell as Louella lookalike Lou Lou.
Frequent Hunger Games helmer Francis Lawrence is back to direct Sunrise on the Reaping; it hits theaters November 20, 2026.
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