Variety reports that Elizabeth Banks, who played Effie Trinket in the first four films from 2012 to 2015, has already seen the new movie and gave it a full-throated endorsement. 'I've seen the film, and it's amazing,' Banks said Wednesday night at the airbnb.org Gala in Los Angeles.

Her praise extended specifically to Joseph Zada, the newcomer taking over young Haymitch from Woody Harrelson: 'Joseph is a perfect Woody Harrelson. He's fantastic.

I can't wait for people to see it.' Per Variety, the film adapts Suzanne Collins' 2025 novel and follows Haymitch through the 50th Hunger Games.

It is one thing for a marketing machine to hype a prequel; it is another for an original cast member to publicly anoint her replacement's performance.

Yahoo Entertainment notes the enthusiasm is spreading: film critic Griffin Schiller called Zada 'a revelation' and said his Haymitch 'might be the best' performance in the series behind Lawrence himself.

An actor who has not been in the franchise for a decade going out of her way to vouch for the film is a notable signal.

Variety's Marc Malkin spoke to Zada earlier this month about how the film was shot. His first day of filming took place on the Cornucopia, with 'a massive drone, so there's no crew' and 47 other kids around him.

'It was the most mental place to film,' he said, adding that his pre-scene nerves 'worked out for the character.'

The original trilogy is not just endorsing the prequel from the sidelines — it is back on screen. According to Yahoo Entertainment, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson return as Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch in a flash-forward scene.

Lawrence told the 'Call Her Daddy' podcast that reprising the roles was 'so emotional,' saying she and Hutcherson 'didn't walk to the bathroom without our arms around each other' and that the film used the same crew and camera operators she remembered.

Hutcherson marked the occasion on his Instagram Story with 'well… we're back!!'

The marketing push hit London on Wednesday, where much of the cast gathered at Westfield for a UK fan screening ahead of the November 20 theatrical release.

Business Insider rated the fashion, and the tributes to the source material ran deep: Elle Fanning wore a Robert Wun ballerina-pink gown with a spinning music-box headpiece as an homage to Effie, while Mckenna Grace wore an Almée Couture gown covered in sparkles depicting the arena landscape, down to a small cornucopia.

Whitney Peak's colorful Chanel gown, per Business Insider, appeared to nod to Lucy Gray Baird's raggedy ruffled dress from the earlier era. Joseph Zada, per the same outlet, wore an oversize Gucci charcoal suit with statement sunglasses.

'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' opens in theaters November 20 from Lionsgate, per Variety, so the verdict on whether Banks's enthusiasm matches audience appetite arrives soon.

The advance fan screenings are already doing their job on social buzz, and Yahoo Entertainment notes search interest in the film is climbing as the release nears.

With Lawrence's emotional return, a critic calling Zada's performance the best in the series after Lawrence's, and an original cast member urging people to see it, Lionsgate heads into the release weekend with unusually warm internal goodwill.

Whether the prequel becomes the franchise's next billion-dollar chapter will be answered at the box office in three weeks.