Mckenna Grace might be busy filming for the long-anticipated The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, but that's not stopping her from sharing some intel with fans.
In case you have been living under a rock, back in April, Lionsgate announced that Mckenna Grace had landed the role of Maysilee Donner in the new Hunger Games sequel film, which adapts Suzanne Collins's book of the same name. The movie stars We Were Liars alum Joseph Zada as a young Haymitch Abernathy, a.k.a. Peeta and Katniss's beloved mentor, played by Woody Harrelson in the original film saga.
Casting for the role of Maysilee Donner was a highly contested one, with Deadline reporting that talent reps referred to it “as the closest thing to the Katniss role that Jennifer Lawrence made famous in the previous films.”
Even before any of the casting announcements for the movie had been made, fans immediately began fan-casting Grace as Maysilee Donner. Now, in a new interview with ScreenRant, Grace opened up about landing the role, admitting that it was precisely because she was fan-cast so heavily that she thought she didn't actually stand a chance.
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Grace shared that she received the news of her casting while on set for Regretting You, where some of her castmates were reading the book. Grace explained, “I had just gotten the call in my trailer that morning that I had booked the role. I had been crying all morning, because I was like, 'Oh, I did not think I was going to get it, especially with the fan castings, 'cause every time I get fan-casted for a role, I want so bad, I start getting fan-casted, and then I don't get it. [I was like,] ‘Damn it, you guys fan-cast me again. Why did you have to do that?’ I was so nervous, and I could not believe I got it.”
Grace continued saying “everybody on set knew that [she] had gotten some good news about something,” but given the caliber of the project and the highly confidential nature of the casting, she had to remain tight-lipped.
“I got on set, and it was this big family dinner scene, and they were like, ‘What was your news today, Mckenna?’ I was like, 'I can't say, but I just got a job.' And [they were like,] ‘She just got Hunger Games.’ I was like, 'How do–no, I didn't. What are you talking about? You don't know anything.' Dave [Franco] was going off, and Sam [Morelos] was going off, and [I] was like, 'Guys, you don't know anything. I didn't get Hunger Games. You don't know what you're talking about. You're going to make me lose the job that I don't have.' I was so scared, and then the next day it came out that I got it.”
Aside from Zada and Grace, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping features a star-studded cast, including actors such as Whitney Peak, Elle Fanning, Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Plemons, Maya Hawke, and Glenn Close, among others. The movie is slated for a November 20, 2026, release and began filming in Europe earlier this summer.
Speaking to Collider recently, Grace revealed they are “still in the process of shooting" and confirmed the cast has already filmed the Reaping. She also teased Zada's performance of Haymitch will be a tear-jerker. “Everybody’s going to be, like, freaking sobbing in the theaters,” she said. “It’s rough. Because I’m supposed to be the mean, most stuck-up girl in town, but I’m watching him do his thing and, like, oof, it’s very gut-punchy.”
