Joseph Zada and Mckenna Grace to visit Sydney for The Hunger Games
The next face of The Hunger Games is coming back to his hometown Sydney, a month before the franchise returns to Australian screens.
Roadshow Films and Lionsgate said on Wednesday that Sydney-born Joseph Zada and American co-star Mckenna Grace will be in Sydney on October 14 to promote The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The distributors have not released a public run of appearances. The stop follows a franchise costume exhibition at the Musée Rodin in Paris on October 6, the first public outing of the campaign.
Sunrise on the Reaping is the second prequel in the series, and the sixth film overall. Francis Lawrence, who directed four of the earlier instalments including 2023’s The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, returns. Adapted from Suzanne Collins’ novel, it opens on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, 24 years before Katniss Everdeen enters the arena. The five previous films have taken more than $US3.3 billion worldwide.
Zada, 21, plays Haymitch Abernathy, the District 12 tribute who becomes the mentor Woody Harrelson played in the original films. Lionsgate cast him in April 2025 after a worldwide search, alongside Whitney Peak as Lenore Dove Baird. Born Joseph Cumpston in Sydney on July 21, 2005, he took his professional name from his grandmother. His screen work before the franchise was largely local: the 2019 film Bilched, directed by his father, and the lead in Stan’s Invisible Boys. Prime Video’s We Were Liars followed. He also plays Cal Trask in Netflix’s East of Eden, the role James Dean had in the 1955 film.
Grace plays Maysilee Donner, a tribute whose fate is already known to readers of the books. The ensemble around them includes Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee, Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Glenn Close, Maya Hawke and Billy Porter. Principal photography was in Spain.
The film opens in Australian cinemas on November 19.