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Joseph Zada has emerged as the early standout in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, with early viewers praising the prequel as “near-perfect” and “easily the best” film in the franchise.
Based on Suzanne Collins’s 2025 novel, Sunrise on the Reaping follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy (Zada) from District 12 as he is chosen to compete in the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell.
Torn away from his family and the girl he loves, Haymitch enters an arena where he believes he has been set up to lose, but begins to fight back against the Capitol’s brutal system.
Zada is joined by Mckenna Grace, who plays Maysilee Donner, as well as Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak, Kieran Culkin, Ralph Fiennes, Kelvin Harrison Jr, and Lili Taylor.
Film Speak critic Griffin Schiller described the film as a “sobering, yet powerful story of devastating loss and the necessary cost of rebellion for a sunrise we may never see”.
“Like the book, the film challenges our own implicit submission and acceptance of terms we’ve never agreed to when the odds ARE in our favour,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“[Director Francis] Lawrence has always excelled at squaring our growing nihilism with the desire to disrupt the system, and Sunrise allows him to interrogate that tension more directly to great effect.”
Schiller called Zada a “revelation”, writing that the actor “perfectly captures Haymitch’s love of people, pain, and rebellious spirit”.
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Collider critic Perri Nemiroff was similarly impressed by Zada, writing that he had her “jaw on the floor time and time again” during the film.
She also singled out Grace’s performance as Maysilee, writing that she was a “total pro at establishing Maysilee’s simmering ferocity while letting that composure/intensity crack just enough”
Even though Zada has received much of the early acclaim, the film’s supporting cast has also attracted high praise. Matt Neglia, editor-in-chief of Next Best Picture, said the film featured “some of the best casting of the year”.
“Glenn Close, with her horror-inducing face, is a scene-stealer as is Jesse Plemons embodying the spirit of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman,” he wrote.
FilmHounds Magazine’s editor-in-chief Gavin Spoors acknowledged that parts of the story might feel familiar to viewers who know the franchise, but “a stellar third act pulls the rug out underneath you”.
“Anchored by terrific performances (Zada is a star), this emotional thriller nails the themes of the cost of revolution and how we all need to play our part,” he wrote.
ScreenRant critic Tatiana Hullender described the film as “a beautiful, bittersweet story that translates very well to film”, while The Nerds of Color writer Nikita Francois called Sunrise on the Reaping “easily the best film in the Hunger Games franchise”.
Critic Clotilde Chinnici called it “the best Hunger Games yet”.
“Beautiful cinematography and set designs with excellent acting, especially from Joseph Zada, to portray the most tragic story in the Hunger Games franchise. This one will make you cry,” she wrote.
The film also brings back original franchise stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and Woody Harrelson as the older Haymitch. Lawrence described the reunion with her former co-stars and crew on the Call Her Daddy podcast, calling it “so emotional”. She said: “Josh and I didn’t walk to the bathroom without our arms around each other. It was so beautiful.”
The original four Hunger Games films, adapted from Collins’s trilogy of dystopian novels, follow Katniss Everdeen, a teenager from the impoverished District 12 who is forced to compete in a televised fight to the death organised by the authoritarian Capitol. The films ran from 2012 to 2015, grossing over $3.3bn worldwide.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is scheduled to open in cinemas on 20 November.