Jennifer Lawrence Confirms Return to Hunger Games Franchise, Reuniting With Hutcherson and Harrelson

Jennifer Lawrence has confirmed that she is returning to The Hunger Games franchise, ending long-running speculation about her involvement in the upcoming film In Sunrise on the Reaping.

The actress said she is back as Katniss Everdeen in the movie, which arrives in theaters next month. She also confirmed that she reunited with former co-stars Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson, whose participation had likewise been rumored for some time.

Lawrence shared the news in a conversation with Alex Cooper, host of the Call Her Daddy podcast. Asked about coming back, she called the experience "unbelievable" and said the set felt familiar because many of the same people were working on it. "It was the same crew. It was the same camera guys, the same AD, who I've worked with a million times," she said.

The reunion with Hutcherson and Harrelson left a strong impression. "It was so emotional," Lawrence said, adding that she and Hutcherson barely went anywhere without their arms around each other. "It was so beautiful."

Harrelson, she said, kept up his own tradition of making an unusual entrance. According to Lawrence, he came through the window of her hotel room uninvited. "It wouldn't be the same if he listened to boundaries and used a door," she joked.

Lawrence also looked back on one of the franchise's more memorable behind-the-scenes stories. She said she gave herself a pixie cut in 2013 as a protest after producers initially refused to give her a wig for Mockingjay. She had grown tired of dyeing her hair brown for the role. She described the result as "the worst haircut anyone has ever seen in their life," and noted that the style became famous.

In Sunrise on the Reaping is a prequel set 24 years before the original film. It follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as he competes in the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell, in which twice as many tributes as usual are forced to fight to the death.

Joseph Zada plays the young Haymitch, and Ralph Fiennes appears as President Snow. The legacy characters from the original films are expected to show up in flashforwards or a framing device. The film opens Nov. 20.