In fact, he said Lawrence was confident he’d get an Oscar nomination for his performance in Causeway right from the get-go.
“After almost every take that I did with Jennifer, she would literally come and be like, ‘You’re gonna get nominated for an Oscar,’ and then just walk off,” the Atlanta alum continued. “And I was like, ‘What? Why do you keep doing that? Stop doing that.’ And what’s crazy is, for the rest of my life, I will have to tell her, ‘Thank you, you were right,’ which I think is what she wanted.”
And he’s thankful to have had the opportunity to work on the film.
“You had a group and an ensemble of people, who got together to tell a story about this walk of life that we go through that involves grief, that involves loss,” he noted. “One of the most amazing ensembles ever from Linda Emond to Jayne Houdyshell, Stephen McKinley Henderson and our director Lila Neugebauer, who I’ve known for almost 20 years. She’s known that this was possible for me and has held that vision for me and didn’t give me anywhere to hide and really nurtured my performance in a way that I’ve never experienced.”
Of working opposite Lawrence on the indie project, Henry added, “To be able to do this kind of story with her, to go back to that grassroots storytelling where she started, was truly something to see.”
The Eternals star is nominated in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role category along with The Fabelmans
‘ Judd Hirsch, Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s Ke Huy Quan and The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan.
And it looks like he’s formed a bond with many of this year’s nominees, including Best Supporting Actress nominee Jamie Lee Curtis.
“That’s another thing that’s been so great is that most of these people are my contemporaries—like the people along the way that I’ve either worked with, or admired in some way, or I’m going to work with in some capacity,” Henry said. “So, it’s just been fun. I also compared it to us being that detention class, that it feels like a weird, distorted Breakfast Club because we’re all in here just being raucous and silly but also celebrating amazing work and just really happy for one another.”
Jennifer Lawrence And Josh Hutcherson Are Returning To The Hunger Games Universe
The rumors are true, and months of denials have officially aged like milk. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are reportedly returning to the world of Panem, reprising their iconic roles as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in Lionsgate’s highly anticipated prequel, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
At first, the idea seemed impossible. The new film takes place decades before Katniss ever volunteered for the Hunger Games, making the return of Lawrence and Hutcherson appear unlikely. However, the filmmakers have reportedly found a clever way to bring the beloved characters back without disrupting the timeline of the original trilogy.
The key is a framing device reportedly taken from Suzanne Collins’ latest novel. The story is expected to feature an older Katniss and Peeta spending time with Haymitch Abernathy as he tells them about the horrifying experience he endured during his own Hunger Games. This approach gives fans an opportunity to see the original characters again while allowing the prequel to remain focused on Haymitch’s story.
The revelation is especially amusing considering Josh Hutcherson’s recent comments about the project. For months, the actor insisted that he knew nothing about the upcoming film and emphasized how much he still loved the franchise. In Hollywood, however, such denials can often mean that a carefully worded confidentiality agreement is keeping the truth under wraps. Fans now have plenty of reason to laugh at those earlier statements.
Sunrise on the Reaping centers on the 50th Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell. This particular Games was designed to be especially brutal, with twice the usual number of tributes being sent into the arena. The story follows a young Haymitch as he struggles to survive one of the most devastating and psychologically intense Games in Panem’s history.
Bringing Katniss and Peeta into the story through a framing sequence could create an emotional connection between Haymitch’s past and the characters fans have followed since the beginning of the franchise. It also gives Lawrence and Hutcherson a chance to return without changing the events established in the original films.
Fans have already taken to social media to celebrate the reported reunion, with many joking about how successfully the actors managed to keep the secret. The combination of familiar stars, Suzanne Collins’ source material, and director Francis Lawrence returning has created enormous anticipation.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 20, 2026. Whether Katniss and Peeta appear only briefly or play a more meaningful role remains unclear, but their return could make this new chapter one of the franchise’s biggest cinematic events yet.
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