The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping has officially found its Haymitch Abernathy. Lionsgate has officially cast Joseph Zada (Invisible Boys) in the lead role first played by Woody Harrelson in the original Hunger Games trilogy. It's also been announced that Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl) will star opposite Zada as Lenore Dove Baird. The upcoming 2026 film is based on the book by the same name by Suzanne Collins. The book and movie both serve as prequels to the respective Hunger Games books and movie adaptations. The film releases November 20, 2026. It will join a franchise that's already grossed $3.3 billion at the box office.

Zada currently stars in the Australian series Invisible Boys and will next be seen in the adaptation of E. Lockhart's We Were Liars, as well as a limited series adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden opposite Florence Pugh, Mike Faist, Martha Plimpton, Tracy Letts, and Chris Abbott from Netflix.