Hunger Games Prequel’s Protagonist Is “Anti-Katniss,” Says Director
Lionsgate
Francis Lawrence, who directed Catching Fire and both Mockingjay movies, returns to helm the prequel. He told Empire that one of his biggest worries he had when making the prequel was “Will people go see a new Hunger Games movie without Katniss?”
The answers to his question will soon be answered when The Hunger Games prequel opens in theaters on Nov. 17, but for now, his hope relies on one crucial character — Lucy Gray, who is said to be the opposite of Katniss.
Based on Suzanne Collins’ 202 novel of the same name, The Ballad Of Songbirds and Snakes is set over 60 years before Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteered as tribute.
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Read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes on Amazon.
The prequel focuses on a young President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who is the last hope of a family fallen from grace.
Lucy Gray, like Katniss, is a tribute from District 12. She is chosen to compete in the tenth annual Hunger Games, and Snow is assigned as her mentor. In every possible way, Lucy Gray is the opposite of Katniss. “Anti-Katniss” as director Lawrence put it.
“Katniss was an introvert and a survivor. She was quiet and stoic, you could almost say asexual,” the filmmaker remarked. “Lucy Gray is the opposite. She wears her sexuality on her sleeve. She really is a performer.”
Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention when she defiantly sings during the reaping ceremony.
In addition to being the first tribute from District 12, she is also the love interest for the 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, the man who later became the tyrannical president of Panem.
Snow is alarmed when assigned to mentor Lucy Gray as the 10th annual Hunger Games approaches.
“Snow has never met a girl like this before,” the director previously noted. The two fell in love, and more importantly, he saw an opportunity to turn the odds in their favor.
“She loves crowds. She knows how to play crowds and manipulate people,” said Lawrence.
“He is a shape-shifter who craves control, but is drawn to a woman who threatens everything he thought he wanted,” said Nina Jacobson, who produced the prequel. Although the 18-year-old Snow is still “a young man finding his way in the world,” all of his actions point toward “the man he is becoming.”
The two unite and race against all odds to survive, but only time will tell who is a songbird and who is a snake.
Zegler and Blyth are joined by Peter Dinklage, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, Jason Schwartzman, and Viola Davis.
Get The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book on Amazon.
