More than a decade after Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, The Hunger Games is taking audiences back to Panem for one of the most pivotal chapters in its history.
From director Francis Lawrence, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set 24 years before the events of the original film. It follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) of District 12, beginning on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Annual Hunger Games.
Known as the Second Quarter Quell, it’s the biggest Games yet, with twice as many tributes. Inside the arena, Haymitch forms an unlikely alliance with Maysilee Donner (Mckenna Grace) and joins a coalition determined to challenge President Snow’s (Ralph Fiennes) control.
He risks everything to take down the Games from within, setting in motion the rebellion that will change Panem forever.
Among the film’s most anticipated characters is a familiar face in a new form. Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays a young Beetee, the brilliant District 3 inventor fans first met in Catching Fire, where he was played by Jeffrey Wright. Sunrise on the Reaping offers a look at Beetee long before he became a victor’s mentor and a quiet architect of the rebellion. It also introduces audiences to his son, Ampert, played by Percy Daggs IV, a young tribute from District 3 whose story became a fan favorite in Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel.
For Daggs, stepping into a character so beloved by readers came with real weight. “Lot of pressure actually, because it was such a big reaction from the fans for Ampert,” he told The Quintessential Gentleman. “I was a little nervous to make sure that I brought him justice and that everybody was pleased with my performance. But even still, I came in confident in my abilities and ready to rock and roll and do my best.”
Harrison came to the role with a rare advantage. He had just wrapped another film with Wright a week before arriving on set, and the two have known each other for more than a decade. “He’s just one of my greatest inspirations as an actor, as a man,” Harrison said. “Hearing him talk about it just brought so much more light into my representation of it, and I wanted to carry that into the origin story of how we meet him. So it was a real privilege.”
Playing father and son meant building a bond in limited time. The two didn’t share many scenes, so Harrison made a point of checking in on the young actor, even though, as he joked, they “could literally be brothers.” That connection extended to Daggs’ real-life family, including his father, Veronica Mars star Percy Daggs III, and his grandfather.
“Me and him shared some incredible conversations just about life and the business and acting and storytelling and what it means to be in it,” Harrison said of Daggs’ father. “So I got to meet just generations of these incredible men. That was my in to it, was connecting to him through his own actual love and the men who have guided him along the way. And then obviously just doing the work.”
Daggs felt that effort. “He made a point to come in and make sure he greeted me and we got to talk to each other,” he said. “The one scene that we had together, we chopped it up the entire time outside of it. He was just telling me stories, how he got to where he is now, which is an amazing story by the way, and just bonded and really built that father-son relationship.”
Stepping into Panem also brought out the fan in both actors. For Harrison, it was the training grounds, a staple of every film in the franchise. “I always imagined myself in there. I was like, what will my skill be? And how would I handle the confrontations, and how would I defy the powers that be?” he said. “I just started touching everything. I was like a kid at Chuck E. Cheese. The inner child in me was so proud and excited that I got to be a part of this.”
For Daggs, the moment didn’t fully land until he saw the finished film, which the two watched together. “It was just astounding to see it all finally come together after shooting,” he said. “I looked back and I was like, whoa, I was really there. I really climbed that. I really sparked that rock. I really did all of that. I’m part of that family.”
Harrison was grateful to share that screening with him. “I know how big of a journey this has been for him and how huge that character is in the book,” he said. “So it was beautiful to see how it was executed and the scope and the scale of the movie and just the love that was poured into it from everybody.”
Their roles also carry meaning beyond the story. Harrison pointed to Amandla Stenberg’s Rue in the first film as a defining moment for him, along with Wright’s casting as Beetee. “What I love too is the representation of us in these books and in the casting of Jeffrey Wright, so allowing us to be in this space and the integrity that we get to have,” he said. “We’re these intellectual, brilliant, groundbreaking characters in this massive franchise. So we definitely don’t take that for granted, and it’s a real honor to kind of step into that space.”
Daggs, who fell in love with Beetee when Catching Fire premiered on his birthday, credited Collins for getting it right. “Especially our characters, who they are and what they represent, not only in the story, but for us in real life right now,” he said. “I’m thankful to Suzanne Collins ’cause she really represented us right.”
The connections between the two run deeper than the franchise. Both actors have played Sterling K. Brown’s son on screen, a coincidence Daggs said he joked about with Brown. “It just all around clicked and pieced together perfectly,” Daggs said. “It really did come full circle for both of us.”
For Daggs, the role feels like destiny. While he was preparing for Never Let Go with Halle Berry, Berry’s acting coach told him he’d be perfect for The Hunger Games, three years before the audition ever came. “I never read it, never watched it, nothing,” he said. “She spoke it into existence, ’cause look where we at now. It’s wild.”
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in theaters on November 20.
Photo Credit: Lionsgate
