Sydney is about to get the first look at the new faces carrying The Hunger Games into its next chapter. Joseph Zada and Mckenna Grace, the stars of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, will arrive in Sydney on Wednesday, October 14, as the city becomes the first stop on the film’s global press tour. The visit comes just over a month before the film opens in Australian cinemas on November 19, giving fans an early chance to see the two young stars together before they return to Panem on the big screen.
For Joseph Zada, there is something especially fitting about beginning this journey in Sydney. The actor, who plays the young Haymitch Abernathy, is stepping into a role that already carries plenty of history. Woody Harrelson played Haymitch in the original films, but Sunrise on the Reaping goes back to the character’s younger years, when he is still far from the weary mentor audiences came to know. Zada, who previously starred in Amazon Prime Video’s We Were Liars, now gets to show how that version of Haymitch was shaped by the arena.
And Mckenna Grace has already given fans a reason to pay close attention to her co-star. Grace plays Maysilee Donner, one of the tributes caught in the 50th Hunger Games, and her admiration for Zada is hard to miss. In an interview with Variety Australia, Grace called Zada one of the most talented actors she has ever worked with and said he is “genuinely about to become one of the biggest stars ever.”
Their connection was not built only in front of the camera. During filming in Spain, Zada and Grace lived together for about a month and a half. Once the cameras stopped rolling, they spent their evenings watching movies and challenging each other to speed chess. It may sound like an unlikely way to prepare for a brutal Hunger Games story, but that time together helped the pair develop the kind of familiarity that can make an on-screen relationship feel lived-in rather than manufactured.
There is plenty to prepare for once that relationship is tested inside the arena. Sunrise on the Reaping takes audiences back to the 50th Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell, where the usual number of tributes is doubled. Instead of 24, 48 young people are sent into the Games. The arena is just as unforgiving, with deadly environmental threats, including volcanic activity, adding another layer of danger.
Grace has already warned fans that getting through this story emotionally may be harder than surviving the arena itself. She has described the film as deeply sad and heartbreaking, while promising plenty of drama and tears. That emotional weight is not surprising considering what happens to Haymitch and the people around him before he ever becomes the man audiences remember.
The excitement surrounding the film also has a strong literary foundation. Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping sold more than 1.5 million World English copies during its first week across the U.S., UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, giving it the biggest first-week opening of any Hunger Games novel.
Francis Lawrence returns to direct the film, with Zada and Grace joined by Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket and Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman.
Now, before the Capitol takes over the screen again, Sydney gets the first moment. For Zada, it is a homecoming. For Grace, it is the beginning of a new chapter in one of cinema’s most recognizable franchises. And for Hunger Games fans, October 14 offers the first real chance to see the faces behind the story that will soon take them back into Panem.
