Joseph Zada and Mckenna Grace Launch ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ Global Press Tour in Sydney

The Australian actor plays a young Haymitch Abernathy opposite Grace’s Maysilee Donner in the latest film in the blockbuster franchise.

Australian actor Joseph Zada and co-star Mckenna Grace have arrived in Sydney to launch the global press tour for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novels.

Roadshow Films and Lionsgate welcomed the pair for the tour’s opening stop ahead of the film’s cinema release. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the prequel returns audiences to Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, exploring the brutal competition that shaped a teenage Haymitch Abernathy.

Zada, whose credits include We Were Liars, takes on the role of the 16-year-old District 12 tribute. The story begins on the morning of the reaping for the 50th annual Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell, which doubles the number of tributes forced to compete.

Inside the arena, Haymitch forms an unlikely alliance with fellow tribute Maysilee Donner, played by Grace, whose recent credits include Regretting You. He also joins a coalition determined to challenge the Capitol’s control under President Snow, played by Ralph Fiennes.

As the competition unfolds, Haymitch risks everything in an attempt to undermine the Games from within, laying the groundwork for his place in Panem’s larger story of resistance.

The role puts Zada at the centre of one of the franchise’s most significant backstories. Audiences previously encountered the older Haymitch as the abrasive, traumatised victor and mentor to Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, played in the original films by Woody Harrelson.

Sunrise on the Reaping brings together an ensemble that also includes Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Lawrence directs, with Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Lawrence producing. The film is based on Collins’ novel of the same name.

For Zada, the Sydney launch marks a home-country opening to an international promotional campaign — and a major step into the spotlight as the new lead of the enduring film franchise.