While audiences can currently catch Rachel Zegler in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, it won't be much longer before we get to see her take on a whole new kind of role, as the charming and musically-inclined Lucy Gray Baird in the upcoming Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. While the film won't hit theaters until November, excitement is beginning to mount, with Lionsgate revealing a new teaser poster for the film, which shows the titular songbird and snake locked in battle.
What is Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes About?
The prequel film, based on the novel by Suzanne Collins, is set to follow a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), decades before he ever becomes the president of Panem. As a young man, he is assigned to work on the 10th annual Hunger Games as a mentor to one of the tributes, and is assigned to the District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Zegler). Over the course of the Games, the two of them forge a close bond, causing Coriolanus to question his role in all this.
Fans of The Hunger Games films will remember President Snow (Donald Sutherland) as a cruel and calculating man who had it in for Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her rebellious ways that spelled disaster for the control he holds over the 12 Districts of Panem. That Katniss and Lucy Gray hail from the same district could potentially lead to an interesting angle within the film.
In addition to Zegler and Blyth, the upcoming prequel film will also star Hunter Schafer, Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Isobel Jesper Jones, Fionnula Flanagan, Flora Li Thiemann, Honor Gillies, Eike Onyambu, Konstantin Taffet, Burn Gorman, Scott Folan, Carl Spencer, Michael Greco, Daniela Grubert, Kjell Brutscheidt, Ashley Liao, Sofia Sanchez, Josh Andres Rivera, Mackenzie Lansing, Lilly Maria Cooper, Zoe Renee, Max Raphael, Vaughan Reilly, Dakota Shapiro, Nick Benson, and George Somner.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hits theaters on November 17. Check out our interview with Zegler below, as well as the official synopsis for the film.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.