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‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ Star Joseph Zada Wants in on Francis Lawrence’s ‘Red Rising’, and He’s Ready To Lobby for It

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Joseph Zada is having a breakout moment. The Australian actor stars as young Haymitch Abernathy in ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’, and early reactions from the film’s London premiere have singled out his performance as a major highlight.

Zada has been building toward this for a while. He starred in the Stan series ‘Invisible Boys’, joined the cast of ‘We Were Liars’, won GQ Australia’s Breakthrough Actor of the Year award in 2025, and has Netflix’s ‘East of Eden’ still to come.

Now Zada already seems to know which project he’d like to do next. In a recent interview, he said he would love to land a role in ‘Red Rising’, the upcoming adaptation from ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ director Francis Lawrence.

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Zada joked that he would have to twist Lawrence’s arm to make it happen. The playful comment quickly caught on with fans, many of whom think he’d fit naturally into Pierce Brown’s brutal sci-fi world.

Given how closely he has worked with Lawrence on Haymitch’s story, the idea of reuniting with the director doesn’t sound far-fetched. For now, though, Zada’s interest is just a wish, as no casting has been announced. Lawrence’s involvement was first reported in mid-October. Paramount holds the film rights, and the director is attached to adapt the first novel in Brown’s best-selling series.

Justin Rhodes, whose credits include ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ and Prime Video’s ‘Secret Level’, is writing the script. Lawrence and Cameron MacConomy are producing through their about:blank banner along with Francesco Goedhuis, while Brown is an executive producer.

The story follows Darrow, a Red miner on Mars who learns that the ruling Gold caste has enslaved his people. He is transformed so he can infiltrate Gold society and joins a rebellion against the colony’s color-based hierarchy.

Fans might expect Lawrence’s newest dystopian story to feel like ‘The Hunger Games’, but he sees it differently. “Red Rising, on the other hand… to me, is an amazing infiltration story,” Lawrence told SlashFilm.

He explained that he’s drawn to the moral dilemmas of sneaking into a society you’re not supposed to belong to. He also stressed that the ‘Red Rising’ and ‘Hunger Games’ stories are completely different, despite surface similarities.

Lawrence added that world-building is one of his favorite parts of filmmaking, which suits a story set across a sprawling, stratified version of Mars. ‘Red Rising’ has had a bumpy path to adaptation. Universal Pictures once held the rights to develop a feature film that never materialized, and a series adaptation was considered in the late 2010s.

Brown has seemed thrilled with the new creative team, sharing his excitement on Instagram after the announcement. He is still working on the series, which is planned to conclude with a 7th book.

For Lawrence, ‘Red Rising’ continues a run of dystopian projects that includes most of ‘The Hunger Games’ films and last year’s ‘The Long Walk’. Bringing back a young star he trusts would hardly be surprising.

Zada will first need to see how audiences respond to his Haymitch when ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ opens on November 20. If the early buzz is right, he may not need to twist anyone’s arm for long.

Would you like to see Joseph Zada join Francis Lawrence's Red Rising adaptation?

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