Fans who have only watched the movie The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and have not read Suzanne Collins’ book likely do not know certain things about the movie’s deuteragonist, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). Lucy Gray is the female tribute from District 12 and the eventual victor of the 10th annual Hunger Games, who is mentored by Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow (Tom Blyth) and has a romantic relationship with him. For the sake of time, the movie had to leave out some interesting details about Lucy Gray’s character.
These details further develop Lucy Gray’s backstory and the position she holds in Panem’s history. Lucy Gray’s persona is important to the Hunger Games franchise’s main plotline of fighting tyranny, as her story looks to future events. She is an echo of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), who will someday lead the country’s rebellion. Both the movie and the book succeed in conveying how Lucy Gray is important to the overall story of The Hunger Games, even if she does not explicitly play a role in the war 60 years later.
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5 Lucy Gray Is The Youngest Of Three Siblings
Lucy Gray mentions that she had two older siblings.
Lucy Gray only briefly mentions her deceased parents in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie. However, she also had two unnamed older siblings, who are also dead by the time the book takes place. Lucy Gray has adopted more of an older sister persona by the time she is selected for the Hunger Games.
Lucy Gray’s younger cousin Maude Ivory (Vaughan Reilly) is like a little sister to her, and she is protective of some of the younger tributes in the Games. Among the remaining Covey, she appears to be one of the older members who are responsible for taking care of their younger relatives. She also comes across as a leader, since she is their lead singer. However, she may still be a younger sister of sorts to characters like Barb Azure (Honor Gillies).
4 Lucy Gray Is The First Ever District 12 Victor
Lucy Gray’s victory is alluded to in the Hunger Games novels.
Moviegoers might have deduced that Lucy Gray is the first tribute from District 12 to ever win the Hunger Games, since no previous victors are mentioned and 12’s tributes are generally at a disadvantage. When Coryo is assigned Lucy Gray, the other mentors scoff, thinking she doesn’t stand a chance. However, a brief line not in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book but in the first Hunger Games book told the audience years ago that Lucy Gray was destined to win.
In the first chapter of The Hunger Games, when Katniss attends the Reaping, a list of District 12’s previous victors is read. Katniss tells the reader that District 12 has only ever had two victors, with Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) being the only one who is still alive (as far as she knows). It is an interesting moment that seems to suggest Collins had Lucy Gray’s story in mind all along.
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3 Lucy Gray’s Family Was Killed By The Capitol
Most of the Covey were murdered by Capitol soldiers.
In the movie, Lucy Gray says that she does not consider herself from District 12, since the Covey were a nomadic community that traveled across Panem, performing in different places. In the same scene, Lucy Gray mentions that her mother is buried in 12, where her family became trapped after the first rebellion. What she does not say is that her parents and siblings were killed when the Peacekeepers rounded them up, her parents because they resisted capture.
Lucy and the remaining Covey children were then taken in by a man in 12, but were mostly left to raise themselves. Like Katniss with her Capitol team, Lucy Gray works with Coryo to survive, even though the Capitol killed her loved ones. However, Katniss is matched with people who ultimately turn out to be rebels, such as Cinna (Lenny Kravitz). In the end, the lessons Coryo learns from Lucy Gray only make him a more effective dictator, and Lucy Gray realizes that she can not reconcile with his worst deeds.
2 Lucy Gray’s Hunger Games Was Wiped From Historical Records
The Capitol did not want anyone to know that Lucy Gray won by cheating.
Among the book moments that The Ballad and Songbirds and Snakes left out is the explanation of how the Capitol erased all records of the 10th Hunger Games. While it was the flagship year of betting and sponsorship among spectators, the 10th Games were disastrous in many ways for the Capitol and generally demonstrated how they could not always control the tributes. Several tributes and mentors are killed before the Games even begin, and a few of the tributes do things in the arena that would be considered rebellious.
The capper is Lucy Gray winning because Coryo smuggled her rat poison, which she uses to kill multiple tributes. After these events, Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis) decides to wipe the 10th Games from the history books, so no one will know of the year that several tributes and the victor herself were able to outsmart the Capitol. Katniss does not tell the reader the name of the first District 12 victor, but her name is likely the only record left of the event.
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1 The Meaning Of Lucy Gray’s Name
The name Lucy Gray follows the traditional Covey naming pattern.
Lucy Gray’s namesake is alluded to but not fully explained in the movie, when she sings a musical version of William Wordsworth’s poem “Lucy Gray.” In the book, Maude Ivory explains that the Covey give their children two-part names, with the first part derived from a song or poem and the second part being a color. She also points out that Lucy Gray’s name is unique because both parts of her name come from a poem.
The poem for which she is named also alludes to Lucy Gray’s fate, since it describes a girl who disappears into the wilderness and is never seen again. Coryo and Lucy Gray briefly discuss the poem in the movie, but the significance still might not be clear. The literary allusion is used to contribute to Lucy Gray’s mysterious and ethereal characterization and is sadly left out of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel movie set 64 years before the events of the original movie with Katniss Everdeen. The film centers on a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) and shows his rise to power as the leader of Panem. Taking place during the 10th Hunger Games, Snow is tasked with mentoring Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), the tribute from District 12.
- Release Date
- November 17, 2023
- Director
- Francis Lawrence
- Cast
- Tom Blyth , Rachel Zegler , Hunter Schafer , Jason Schwartzman , Peter Dinklage , Josh Andrés , Josh Andrés Rivera , Viola Davis
- Runtime
- 157 Minutes
