Kieran Culkin Joins ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ as Caesar Flickerman

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May 21

The Emmy-winning actor steps into Stanley Tucci’s iconic shoes for the next chapter of Panem.

Kieran Culkin has officially entered the Capitol. Lionsgate has confirmed that the Succession star will take on the role of Caesar Flickerman in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the highly anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ latest prequel novel. The role, immortalized in earlier films by Stanley Tucci, marks Culkin’s first major studio tentpole since his Oscar-winning performance in A Real Pain.

Set 24 years before Katniss Everdeen first volunteered as tribute, Sunrise on the Reaping unfolds on the morning of the 50th Hunger Games, better known as the Second Quarter Quell. The brutal twist? Twice the number of tributes—48 children forced into the arena in a game of survival manipulated by politics, power, and spectacle.

Culkin joins a packed ensemble that includes Joseph Zada as a teenage Haymitch Abernathy and Whitney Peak as his girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird. Mckenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke, Lili Taylor, Ben Wang, Ralph Fiennes, and Elle Fanning round out a star-studded cast.

Francis Lawrence returns to direct from a script by Billy Ray, continuing his long-standing collaboration with producer Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson under the Color Force banner. Meredith Wieck and Scott O’Brien are overseeing for Lionsgate, with Cameron MacConomy executive producing. The film is set to hit theaters on November 20, 2026.

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With The Hunger Games franchise already grossing more than $3.3 billion globally, Culkin’s casting as the charismatic and cunning host suggests a darker, more subversive take on the media machine of Panem. Known for his acidic wit and emotional volatility on Succession, Culkin brings a complexity to Flickerman that could redefine the franchise’s tone for a new era.

After years of critical acclaim and stage dominance—including his current sold-out Broadway run in Glengarry Glen Ross opposite Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr—Culkin seems poised to step into franchise royalty with a grin as sharp as any knife in the arena.