Whitney Peak Reacts to ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel Casting, Says Rachel Zegler Reached Out and “Gave Me Some Love”

Whitney Peak is opening up about her newly announced starring role in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping novel was released this spring and revisits the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games when a younger Haymitch (portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the original films) competes. Joseph Zada is starring as Haymitch while Peak will play Haymitch’s girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird, in the project, which is set to hit theaters in November 2026.

At the Chanel Tribeca Festival Women’s Luncheon in NYC on Friday, Peak told The Hollywood Reporter that the last six weeks or so since her casting was announced have “been a really warm welcome. Everything happened really quickly, but it is very much led by a lot of incredible women, and I do feel very lucky to be a part of it. I think I’ve been trying to not get too overwhelmed, not think about it too much until it’s happening, until we’re in it,” since they have not yet started filming.

After Rachel Zegler starred in the previous Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, in 2023, Peak revealed that “Rachel reached out and gave me some love, and I know that was really huge. It was just really incredible. The support that came through was really lovely. I was terrified, to be completely honest.”

The actress admitted that when she got the audition, “I was like, ‘Oh, well, I don’t know if I even stand chance of getting this or doing this — if I’m the right person for a job.’ I just kept selling myself short and already wrote myself off before I gave myself a chance. So getting the part and being let into this world and given the opportunity has just been very pivotal to me and my development and my self-confidence and my self-worth and my relationship with myself. It’s like, you know what, yeah, we do belong here. We can keep going. And there is space for us everywhere.”

Peak previously appeared in the Gossip Girl reboot and Hocus Pocus 2 and will next be seen in Sony’s shark thriller Shiver opposite Phoebe Dynevor.