Since we heard that The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is among upcoming book adaptations, we’ve been curious about who could play a young Haymitch Abernathy after Woody Harrelson debuted the role in the original trilogy. Well, the day is finally here, and while the actor is an unknown, I totally see the resemblance to Harrelson.
As reported by Deadline, Joseph Zada has been cast as Haymitch alongside Whitney Peak, set to play Haymitch’s girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird. Check out the announcement:
While there’s been a lot of talk about who could be cast as Haymitch since the movie has been confirmed in the works, The Hunger Games is continuing what has done well along, which is casting unknowns and jumpstarting new careers. (I mean just look at Jennifer Lawrence!) Plus, it’ll be easier to immerse ourselves into the Hunger Games origin story if we are not overly familiar the actor – oh, and he looks like a dead ringer for a young Woody Harrelson.
If you’ve never seen Joseph Zada’s face before, you’re not alone. The actor is just getting started in Hollywood. So far, he’s already filmed two other book adaptations, but they just haven’t been released yet. Zada’s set to be in the We Were Liars for Amazon Prime, coming June 18, and he’ll also be in Netflix’s East of Eden TV show alongside Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist.
As mentioned earlier, playing Haymitch’s girlfriend and a member of Covey, just like Rachel Zegler‘s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes character, is Whitney Peak, who got her own announcement post as well:
The 22-year-old was most famously in the Gossip Girl reboot as Zoya Lott for two seasons before the series was cancelled. She also starred in Hocus Pocus 2 alongside Sarah Jessica Parker and Bette Midler.
At the top of the month, the official logo for Sunrise on the Reaping was unveiled at CinemaCon along with new details from director Francis Lawrence. He called the upcoming movie a “return to form” for the franchise, especially since the second Quarter Quell is much closer on the timeline to Katniss and Peeta’s games.
While Suzanne Collins has shared that she thought about having the book include a Woody Harrelson-aged Haymitch narrate the story, she ultimately decided it would have been “harder to pull off” the story from his reflective perspective. So the jury is still out regarding whether Harrelson will be in this version in any capacity.
Now that the production has cast its leads, there’s a lot more great characters for the movie to cast next, like Mags, Drusilla (basically Effie from Haymitch’s games), Plutarch Heavensbee (previously played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), Coriolanus Snow and Beetee Latier.
We can’t wait for so much more casting news to roll out. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set to hit theaters on November 20, 2026.