Hunger Games Prequel: This Tribute is No Unwilling Loner

Fans of The Hunger Games are rejoicing as it’s now almost time to return to Panam. On November 17th this year, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will transport us back in time to the 10th annual Hunger Games long before the glitzy city of Panam that we are all familiar with had taken shape. The compelling narrative unfolds during an era when the tyrannical President Snow, played in the original films by Donald Sutherland, was but a teenager, faced with a formidable challenge – to mentor the female tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird. In doing so his task is made clear, “Your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors.”

Viola Davis, Rachel Zegler and Peter Dinklage are all on the roster, with Zegler taking the star role of tribute Lucy Gray. Reminiscent of Katniss portrayed by Jessica Lawrence in the originals, Lucy seizes the spotlight during the Reaping ceremony, but unlike Katniss Lucy is no unwilling loner. Original franchise director Francis Lawrence has returned for the prequel and describes Lucy as being the “anti-katniss”.

“Katniss was an introvert and a survivor,” the director said in the latest issue of 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.”

Whereas Katniss was a reluctant face of the rebellion, songstress Lucy Gray relishes the spotlight and uses it to her own advantage. “She loves crowds,” Lawrence added. “She knows how to play crowds and manipulate people.”

The city of Panam too is much changed. The arena where Lucy must fight for her survival, with its array of television screens, exudes a 1970s fallout shelter aesthetic rather than the futuristic technology of the original films. In stark contrast, the Capitol itself is also a cold authoritarian place, a departure from the dystopian opulence and high fashion that defined the earlier movies.