See The First Look At Rachel Zegler In The Hunger Games Prequel

Check out Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth in the first shots for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

By Doug Norrie | Published

rachel zegler

These days, if you have control over a popular franchise, it’s going to make sense to bring as many stories into that world as possible. And if you have books to base the story on, well, then even better. That’s the case with The Hunger Games which got a re-up on stories when author Suzanne Collins penned a prequel novel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, detailing some of the years prior to when we met Katniss Everdeen. This one is going to bring us up to speed on Coriolanus Snow and his first love, Lucy Gray Baird. The latter will be played by Rachel Zegler and we got our first look at the characters from the movie itself.

Deadline released a picture from Lionsgate which has Rachel Zegler as Gray Baird and Tom Blyth as Snow sitting in a field looking very much in love. To some degree, this is quite the departure, at least in this scene, from what we’ve been used to seeing in The Hunger Games franchise which has been mostly stylized and very bloody. That was the nature of the world Collins created. But this story is happening in the years before that, somewhat before the games themselves carried quite the same weight or had quite the same faux pomp. Check out the picture of Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth below. 

rachel zegler

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will follow the story of the 10th Hunger Games in which Tom Blyth’s Snow becomes a tribute for Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird. It is at these games that he begins to shape how future iterations will look in terms of the game “play”. But for his purposes, it’s because he most definitely develops feelings for Baird. It’s this story and what ultimately happens to Snow that causes him to become the ruthless and dangerous version that we saw in the later books and movies. He surely doesn’t start that way, and it’s almost surreal seeing him sitting like this with Rachel Zegler’s character as if he won’t become one of the true villains we’ve seen on the big screen or in the pages of a story.

Joining Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes are a few other notables. Jason Schwartzman will be playing Lucky Flickerman, the host of the Hunger Games broadcast, and is related to Caesar Flickerman who was played by Stanley Tucci in the movies. And there’s also Peter Dinklage as Casca Highbottom who helped create the games. Viola Davis is Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the game maker for this bloodbath. 

We’ll get to see what this all looks like next year seeing as how Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, and company aren’t coming to the big screen until November 17, 2023. That’s when The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes finally hits theaters. It will be a big year for the actress seeing as how she’s also set to star in Snow White, the live-action adaptation of the Disney story.