Speaking to Empire Magazine which publishes the new look from the 'Hunger Games' prequel, director Francis Lawrence explains how Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird is the 'anti-Katniss.'
- Aug 30, 2023
AceShowbiz - Lionsgate Films has teased fans with a new look at "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes". Two months shy of the film's release, the studio has unveiled a never-before-seen image featuring the movie's two lead characters.
In the photo, Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow (Tom Blyth) and Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) walk hand-in-hand as they appear to enter the arena. Lucy Gray looks frightened as they are escorted by some armed soldiers, with other tributes and mentors following behind.
Speaking to Empire Magazine which published the image, director Francis Lawrence says that Zegler's character is the "anti-Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence)." He explains, "Katniss was an introvert and a survivor. She was quite quiet and stoic, you could almost say [she was] asexual. Lucy Gray is the opposite. She wears her sexuality on her sleeve, [and] she really is a performer."
Where Katniss was deadly with a bow, Lawrence adds that Lucy Gray uses her wiles as a weapon. "She loves crowds," he continues to spill. "She knows how to play crowds and manipulate people."
Meanwhile, a previously-released trailer for the film seemingly hinted at the complicated relationship of Lucy Gray and Snow. In the trailer, te two appear to form a romantic connection as teenagers. But Snow is soon faced with conflicted feelings when Lucy Gray is chosen as a tribute from District 12 for the 10th Annual Reaping Ceremony, with him assigned as her unwilling mentor.
"There have been some changes this year," Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), the creator of the Hunger Games, tells Snow in the video. "Your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors."
"The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" centers on young Coriolanus Snow, who is deemed the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, the girl tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem's attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favor. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy's race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird and a snake.
Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Burn Gorman, Fionnula Flanagan and Ashley Liao also star in the prequel to "The Hunger Games" film series. It is set to arrive in U.S. theaters on November 17.
