The first The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie image shows Rachel Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird and a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth). Lionsgate found great success in the 2010s by adapting Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games young-adult books into blockbuster movies starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen. The overall popularity of the films led Collins to write a prequel novel focused on a younger version of President Snow. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was released in 2020, but Lionsgate confirmed its plans to turn the book into a movie even before it hit store shelves, with Francis Lawrence returning to the franchise to direct.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes took major steps forward this year as Lionsgate gave the movie an official release date and cast the main roles. Since the film revolves around a young Coriolanus Snow, Blyth was the first actor officially cast in the production. Book readers then began to wonder who would play Lucy Gray Baird, the District 12 girl who Snow has to mentor during the 10th Hunger Games. It was later announced that West Side Story breakout star Zegler has landed the coveted role.
With production underway on the Hunger Games prequel movie, the first image from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has been revealed. Vanity Fair shared the new look at the Hunger Games spinoff. It shows Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird and Blyth's young Snow lying together in what looks to be a happy embrace. Check it out below:
The image of Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird and Blyth's young Coriolanus Snow proves the first glimpse at the Hunger Game franchise's new leads. Audiences are already somewhat familiar with Snow as he was the President of Panem when Katniss' story unfolded. Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird is a free-spirited young woman who travels the world with her Covey, which is where she would use her gift of singing. Although Snow is meant to mentor Lucy Gray through the games, the two develop stronger, romantic feelings for each other — as teased through this photo of them holding hands.
Now that Zegler's Lucy Gray and Blyth's young Snow have been officially revealed, excitement for the Hunger Games prequel movie will no doubt continue to grow. Collins' book is very different from the trilogy that inspired the first four Hunger Games movies. There is not nearly as much focus on the actual events inside the 10th Hunger Games, or even that much effort to show life from Lucy Gray's point of view. Since The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' marketing is already putting Lucy Gray and Snow equally front-and-center, perhaps the film will make some improvements from the source material.
Source: Vanity Fair