How ‘Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ refers to Katniss
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place over 60 years before Katniss Everdeen enters the competition, but the film still finds a way to mention her. (Spoilers ahead!)
No, Jennifer Lawrence does not have a cameo appearance. Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) says her name in the new film, which hit theaters on Friday, November 17.
While in District 12 with a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), Lucy takes him to a lake where they can swim and enjoy the sun. Lucy looks at a flower with roots for them to eat, and notes that it isn’t quite ripe enough to snack on yet. She reveals that some people call it “swamp potato,” but she prefers the nicer name: “Katniss.”
Ultimately, these are the only characters that appear The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes ffrom the original trilogy are Snow – the dictator Katniss ultimately fights to overthrow – and his cousin Tigris, the stylist with tiger-like body modifications who helps the rebels sneak into the Capitol.
In the prequel film Tigris (Hunter Schafer) has no tattoos and tries to care for her and Snow’s grandmother alone. Meanwhile, Snow tries to win prize money to lift their family out of poverty while guiding Lucy through the 10th annual Hunger Games.
This is the first time mentors have been used, and Snow has plenty of other suggestions to increase viewership. He’s not really the bad guy, though Donald Sutherland played in the original trilogy.
“People think they know the character,” Blyth said Variety earlier this month. “What I hope is that if they don’t empathize with him, they understand him a little more and what makes him tick. And understand what a character like him would have to go through to make him become so evil.
He continued, “For me, I kind of fell in love with him as a character. I was heartbroken when I had to let him fall off the deep end.”
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At the end of the film, Snow completes his inevitable turn into the cold future president and while the title card is shown, the older Snow is not seen. However, the audience hears Sutherland’s voice delivering Snow’s most famous line to Katniss: “It’s the things we love most that destroy us.”
Blyth did not talk to Donald Sutherland about the directorial role Francis Laurens requested him to give a fresh take on the character. Zegler, meanwhile, met Jennifer Lawrence after filming.
“Meeting her was like meeting a friend because we have so many friends in common and I’ve heard so much about her,” Zegler said. Access to Hollywood on Tuesday, November 13. “Francis, our director, when I told him we had finally met, he said, ‘Oh, finally the two weirdest contacts I have in my phone have worked together,’ and I consider that a badge of honor really.”