Why Lucy Gray & Snow Are More Similar Than They Appear Explained By Hunger Games Producer

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes producer Nina Jacobson explains why Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) and Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) are more similar than they might initially appear. The prequel tells the story of the tenth annual Hunger Games, where a young Coriolanus Snow — before becoming President Snow in the original movies — is tasked to mentor District 12 tribute, Lucy Gray. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ reception has been largely positive, and it has achieved moderate box office success.

Speaking with TheWrap, Jacobson draws parallels between protagonists Coriolanus and Lucy Gray. Despite the common thought that Coriolanus represents the snake and Lucy Gray is the songbird, Jacobson maintains that both characters have a little bit of a songbird and snake in them. She further analyzed that “Lucy Gray is not a pure songbird,” emphasizing again that “they are both.” Check out the full quote from Jacobson below:

“I think most people would say that Snow is a snake and she’s a songbird. The truth is that they both have a little songbird, they both have a little snake, which I think makes them interesting. This is an origin story of a villain, but we start with a young man who is not a villain. He’s not fully formed, he doesn’t believe in the philosophies yet that the Snow we know believes in. He’s a kid who’s like trying to survive and trying to put food on the table for his family. His family’s fallen from grace, and he’s got to hide this from his entitled classmates. And so he’s struggling, and he’s a kid that you can kind of get behind and sort of root for.”

“Suzanne always thought it was critical to keep at front of mind that Lucy Gray is not a pure songbird. We see early on that she has her own connection to snakes and that we are all both, they are both. There are shifting moments where those qualities take the fore or step to the back. I think that having a character who is still — as many people are, my kids are — around this age, you know, you’re being formed. [Snow] has been pulled in these different directions, and I think even though we know how he’ll turn out, we keep hoping that somehow it might go another way, but it doesn’t, and I think audiences from when we show the film really love that moment where he finally becomes the man he will be.”

More Similarities Between Coriolanus Snow & Lucy Gray Baird, Explained

Despite one being from the lavish land of The Capitol and the other deemed a “runt girl” from District 12, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus have a critical similarity in their backgrounds. Both Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes characters have lost their parents during their youth, which shapes them throughout their story. Lucy Gray dons her late mother’s dress, which gives her strength throughout the games, while Coriolanus experiences his turbulent coming-of-age in the absence of parental guidance. This similarity is also emphasized by Lucy Gray, revealing that they are “orphans,” which brings a mutuality between them and allows them to grow closer as the games progress.

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In the Hunger Games’ prequel novel, A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Suzanne Collins leaves behind the mystery of Lucy Gray Baird’s final fate.

In addition, both characters exhibit iconoclastic – or “snake”-like – behavior that renders their strength of will similar. As Snow tells Lucy Gray early on in the movie, people will go to extreme lengths to survive, which is evident in the games. For both, this involves bending the “rules” of their worlds. When her name is drawn at The Reaping, Lucy Gray breaks into a rebellious song. Snow breaks the rules more directly by equipping Lucy Gray with poison behind the Gamemaker’s back.

These parallels in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes establish that Lucy Gray and Snow both have songbird- and snake-like qualities within them. These characteristics allow the two characters to become not foils, but similarly-motivated teenagers both going through their own coming-of-age stories. Coriolanus will eventually grow into a Hunger Games villain after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but in most of this movie, he is just beginning to slither into the malevolent snake he will become.

Source: TheWrap