Rachel Zegler is set to make her debut as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Despite sharing a series, director Francis Lawrence says she couldn’t be more different than Katniss Everdeen.
The Hunger Games series blew up in no small part to Jennifer Lawrence’s stellar performance as Katniss Everdeen. With the prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes coming down the pipeline in just a few months, many people assume Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird will just be another Katniss. However, the film’s director Francis Lawrence assures fans that they’re opposites:
“Katniss was an introvert and a survivor,” Lawrence told Empire. “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…she loves crowds. She knows how to play crowds and manipulate people.”
This description of by Francis Lawrence certainly shows a grand departure from The Hunger Games in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. While Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen was focused on winning the literal war, be it in the arena or the revolution, it seems as though Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird will wage a psychological war. Namely on that of Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem. Though that seems to show the two characters may not be too different after all.
The talent behind the new Hunger Games movie
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is being directed by Francis Lawrence, who helmed the final three films in the original series. Michael Arndt, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine, has penned the script alongside Assassin’s Creed scribe Michael Lesslie. In addition to Tom Blyth, the film also features Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Burn Gorman, Fionnula Flanagan and Josh Andres Rivera, among many others.
The Hunger Games centered on Katniss Everdeen’s rising popularity on a televised battle royale death match and her subsequent leadership role in the uprising against a fascist government. Lionsgate released four films based on the novels, starring Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence as Everdeen opposite Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, and Elizabeth Banks. The film series collectively grossed nearly $3 billion at the worldwide box office.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is scheduled for release on November 17, 2023. Stay tuned for the latest news regarding the prequel and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content!
