No, Jennifer Lawrence isn’t going to be in the Hunger Games prequel
Jennifer Lawrence denies a rumor that she's going to appear in The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes
Aux News The Hunger Games
Lionsgate is trying to recapture some of that old magic by reviving The Hunger Games, adapting Suzanne Collins’ prequel series The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes. It’s got lots of the ingredients you loved from the first time around, namely a plucky poor girl from District 12 (Rachel Zegler) who has to navigate the cruel excess of the Capitol as well as a fight to the death with a bunch of other kids. One thing it won’t have, though, is Jennifer Lawrence, says Jennifer Lawrence.
During Lawrence’s appearance on Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen shared a fan question: “Is there any truth to the rumor you will appear in The Hunger Games prequel as Katniss’s grandmother? It does take place like, 49 years before The Hunger Games.”
“Oh, ’cause I’m 49 in Hollywood years, huh?” Lawrence joked, adding decisively, “No, that’s not true.”
Songbirds And Snakes actually reportedly takes place more than 60 years before the events of The Hunger Games. Per ScreenRant, there is a character from the novel that some fans have speculated could be an Everdeen ancestor, Maude Ivory Baird. This very minor character is the cousin of protagonist Lucy Gray Baird, and the fan theory stems from one line of dialogue: “One hearing’s all my cousin Maude Ivory needs. That child never forgets anything with a tune.” Years later, Katniss would display a similar mockingjay-esque ability. This character was apparently depicted as a little kid in the novel, though, so it’s certainly not a natural fit for Lawrence to play.
Of course, the filmmakers could tweak the character, or have Lawrence play someone entirely unrelated to Katniss, if they really wanted to include her. (Francis Lawrence, who directed Jennifer in Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and Red Sparrow, is also directing the prequel film.) But it’s probably best for the film to stand on its own merits without relying on the former star for a minor cameo.
That’s not to say the new story isn’t relying on deep ties to the original series. Besides it being, well, about the Hunger Games, there are also lots of familiar characters like “Lucky” Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman), ancestor of Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), Tigris (Hunter Schafer), and young President Snow (Tom Blyth). Threading the needle between the familiar and fresh will be the primary challenge for Songbirds And Snakes.
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Jennifer Lawrence denies a rumor that she’s going to appear in The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And SnakesYes, but will Tim Blake Nelson be in it?
Yes , HE is playing Katniss’s grandmother.
Damn right!
But I’m hungry for a nude suplex.
This prequel thing is gonna bomb, right? Do that many people really want more Hunger Games stuff in 2023? I saw all of the original movies and that final 2-parter was a slog.
tough to say where it falls on the nostalgia scale these days. this is correlation not causation, but everything jason schwartzman has been doing this year has been a hit.
It’s a cultural touchstone in that everyone knows what it’s shorthand for (and most have probably read the books or seen the movies) but I don’t feel it’s had much lasting impact as a movie people want to revisit. I don’t even stop flipping channels on weekends for it. Hey, Tombstone’s on again!
“Oh, ’cause I’m 49 in Hollywood years, huh?”
No, she was 29 last year which means she’s a year older now.32.
(I’m probaly the only one having seen No hard feelings, so that one’s just for me.)
There are two of us on this site who have seen No Hard Feelings!
By next weekend there will have been three of us! THREE!
This seems like a bad idea on its face (I’d be more interested in seeing the first Hunger Games if they’re going to revisit it) but trying to shoehorn Lawrence into it would be a bad AND stupid idea. You want an ancestor, get Haley Bennett.
I saw the poster for this when I went to see Astroid City (ugh. Don’t get me started) and thought, why? Who wants to see a story sympathetic to Snow?
Kit Harrington, probably
“One hearing’s all my cousin Maude Ivory needs. That child never forgets anything with a tune.” Years later, Katniss would display a similar mockingjay-esque ability. I’m sorry, what? Full disclosure, never read the books. So book readers, did she display some ability as related to the above quote? In the movies she did not. Yes, she sang some songs and yes, she did the mocking jay whistle, which is all of 4 notes. Not exactly some earth shattering ability…I am just confused as hell by this above quote/fan theory.