Maya Hawke Teases Jennifer Lawrence’s Hunger Games Return: ‘I’m Just Such a Big Fan of Hers’

Maya Hawke is teasing Jennifer Lawrence’s return to the Hunger Games franchise.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, Jan. 8, the Stranger Things star, 27, confirmed the news that Lawrence would be returning to Panem as Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming prequel film Sunrise on the Reaping.

Hawke, who is set to star as Wiress in the film, told Fallon that Lawrence’s performance heavily influenced her career.

“Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in the first four movies is a big part of the reason why I want to be an actor. She’s amazing,” she shared, recounting how she saw Lawrence’s new film Die My Love in Germany, while shooting Sunrise on the Reaping.

“I’m just such a big fan of hers, and so to be anywhere near that franchise means the world to me,” Hawke said.

“She actually came back, right?” Fallon asked, to which Hawke nodded and responded, “We’re allowed to say that? People know?”

“They know now!” the host quipped.

Sunrise on the Reaping, adapted from author Suzanne Collins’ 2025 novel of the same name, follows Haymitch Abernathy (We Were Liars star Joseph Zada) as he is forced into competing in the 50th Hunger Games, some 24 years before the events of the first movie that Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson starred in.

Last month, multiple outlets reported that Lawrence, 35, and Hutcherson, 33, are expected to reprise their Hunger Games roles as Katniss and Peeta, respectively, in the prequel.

While specifics behind Lawrence and Hutcherson’s roles in the movie are still under wraps, those who have already read Sunrise on the Reaping know that Katniss and Peeta appear with Haymitch (whom Woody Harrelson played in the original four Hunger Games movies) in an epilogue chapter.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  

While Lawrence has yet to publicly comment about a return to the Hunger Games film series, Hutcherson addressed the possibility of making more Hunger Games movies with director Francis Lawrence during an interview with Variety in November.

At the time, Hutcherson that he only learned of the epilogue chapter when Sunrise on the Reaping was published earlier this year.

“I would love to be back on set with Francis, with Jen, with Liam, with Woody,” he said at the time. “It would not take any convincing at all. I’d be there in a heartbeat.”

When asked specifically if he would appear inSunrise on the Reaping, Hutcherson added, “That would be a dream come true. Do dreams come true? Sometimes. Sometimes not. Sometimes, yeah.”

Elsewhere in her conversation with Fallon, Hawke opened up about working with Glenn Close — who stars as Drusilla Sickle, the escort for District 12’s tributes in Sunrise on the Reaping.

“I had the most fun experience of my life,” the actress recounted. “We were on the tarmac at a very ominous airport in Germany, and they were blowing wind at us with these giant wind machines.”

“It was like 2 degrees. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit,” she teased. “And she was so stone-cold. I was thinking about complaining — she didn’t complain at all.

“So I was like, ‘Well, if she’s not complaining, I can’t complain,'” Hawke joked. “She’s a pro.”

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping opens in theaters Nov. 20, 2026.