These Are The Only 2 Hunger Games Characters Who Personally Met Katniss & Lucy Gray

Sixty-four years separate The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and The Hunger Games, meaning that only two people have known both Lucy Gray Baird and Katniss Everdeen in the series. The Hunger Games franchise, which originated with Suzanne Collins’ published trilogy, rose to prominence with the first film in 2012. The dystopian action movie is based on Collins’ book of the same name and chronicles the events surrounding the 74th Hunger Games. Eleven years later, Lionsgate released The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, based on the novel of the same name, a prequel depicting the 10th Hunger Games.

Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence in the first four movies, was the narrator and protagonist of the original Hunger Games series. Meanwhile, Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird was the female lead in the prequel. Although their stories take place 64 years apart, and they were (assumingly) not living at the same time, several parallels connect Lucy Gray to Katniss in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Both were from the Seam in District 12, won their respective Hunger Games, performed “The Hanging Tree,” and encountered the same two characters (decades apart, of course).

Tigris & Coriolanus Snow Are The Only Hunger Games Characters Who Directly Met Katniss & Lucy Gray

The Hunger Games universe contains hundreds of characters, but only two have met Lucy Gray and Katniss — Tigris and Coriolanus Snow. The president of Panem is the obvious answer, as Snow played a significant (and catastrophic) role in Lucy Gray’s and Katniss’ stories. When he was 18 years old, Snow, as one of 24 Academy students chosen to mentor tribute, was assigned to advise Lucy Gray, the female tribute from District 12, and prepare her for the Games. Tigris also assisted Lucy Gray by working as her stylist (a Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes detail that the movie cut).

The two formed a strong bond that quickly turned romantic, and after Lucy Gray won, they reconnected in District 12. Snow grew close to Lucy Gray, while the evil inside him increasingly began to surface. The couple decided to run away, but a slip-up and the destroyed trust between them resulted in Snow hunting Lucy Gray as she ran from him in the woods. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes didn’t reveal Lucy Gray’s fate, but she was never seen again, nor was she talked about 64 years later when Katniss was reaped for the 74th Games.

Flash-forward to the future, Snow was the president of Panem when Katniss became the Mockingjay and was the spark to the flame that ignited the Second Rebellion. The two had a contentious relationship as they were on two different sides of the conflict. During the war, Katniss and Squad 451 sought shelter in Tigris’ shop while on their way to kill Snow. Snow is Katniss’ primary enemy throughout the Hunger Games movies, but she isn’t the one to kill him — Katniss shoots and kills President Coin with her bow and arrow and leaves the angry mob to deal with Snow.

How Lucy Gray’s Hunger Games Fate Led To Tigris Eventually Helping Katniss

Tigris’ encounter with Lucy Gray in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was the catalyst for her helping Katniss and the surviving Squad 451 members during Mockingjay. Although she grew up in the Capitol, Tigris was kind and sympathetic towards the children subjected to killing one another in an arena while the whole world watched. The 10th Hunger Games and the abuse directed at Lucy Gray and the other tributes disturbed Tigris. Although Snow later hired (and fired) her as a stylist for the Games, Tigris’ role in Mockingjay proved that the events of Lucy Gray’s Games forever changed her.

Tigris was very close with her cousin when they were younger, but as the years went on, Snow developed into an evil and malicious person, and they grew distant. Snow’s treatment towards Tigris and the horrors of the 10th Hunger Games ultimately led to Tigris letting Katniss hide from Peacemakers in her shop while on her way to kill Snow. Tigris reached a point where she didn’t care if her cousin died, and Katniss has Lucy Gray to thank for that.

Future Hunger Games Movies Could Still Further Connect Katniss & Lucy Gray

If Suzanne Collins decides to write more Hunger Games books and Francis Lawrence wants to adapt them for the screen, future stories could further tie Katniss to Lucy Gray and vice versa. While Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes 2 isn’t the best way to continue the franchise, other sequels (or prequels) could add to the list of people who encountered both Lucy Gray and Katniss. The parallels between the two characters (and their differences) are interesting, so Collins may have more connections between Lucy Gray and Katniss planned for future Hunger Games stories.