Actress Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) is featured in a first-look photo that dropped online Tuesday (August 16) for the highly anticipated prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
“This is a story about love,” the official Twitter profile for The Hunger Games franchise posted “And we love all kinds of things we don’t trust.”
In the photo, Zegler’s lead character, Lucy Gray Baird, is lying on a blanket with actor Tom Blyth (The Gilded Age), who is playing a young Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland’s character in the first four movies). Lucy is wearing a deep purple dress. She is holding Coriolanus’ hand, and both are staring into the sky. Coriolanus is in a white tee and blue pants. His blonde hair is cut short, and he’s wearing what looks like a military dog tag around his neck.
In the prequel, Lucy is a tribute from District 12. Coriolanus is an 18-year-old mentor assigned to her. Songbirds and Snakes is adapted from the 2020 book by Suzanne Collins, the same author of the original book series, which was adapted into four movies that hit theaters between 2012 and 2015 – The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
Zegler commented about the first image on Instagram. “NO EMOTIONAL DAMAGE NONE AT ALL” she wrote under Blyth’s post, where he commented, “Sneaky peak at our inconspicuous little movie about 2 totally chill birdwatchers with no emotional damage whatsoever…”
Along with Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth, the film stars Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), Jason Schwartzman (Fargo), Oscar winner Viola Davis (Fences) and Zegler’s real-life boyfriend Josh Andrés Rivera (West Side Story).
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes hits theaters on November 17, 2023.
