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.

Joseph Zada as Haymitch Abernathy in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (Lionsgate)

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…