Hunger Games Director Confirms Katniss Easter Egg in Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

In the original Hunger Games series, Katniss Everdeen established herself as an iconic hero in fantasy and sci-fi, so when the adaptation The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes landed in theaters, fans kept their eyes out for references to the figure, with director Francis Lawrence confirming he included a very specific nod to the character in the prequel. With Katniss being known for her prowess as an archer, Lawrence made sure to include a bow and arrow in the arena for the tenth Hunger Games that none of the characters actually used. This wasn’t meant to establish a direct connection to Katniss, but more to honor the audience’s connection with Katniss and her importance in the franchise.

“I have one little nod, there’s a piece where Snow is actually in the arena and we see — because nobody uses a bow and arrow — we see a broken bow with a quiver of arrows that he sees. That was not in the script,” Lawrence revealed to BuzzFeed. “So that was something that we added. Anytime we could sort of give little nods to iconic elements from the original stories, we tried to do it.”

With Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes taking place nearly 70 years before the events of the first The Hunger Games, fans knew not to expect an appearance from Katniss, but Lawrence also noted another nod that was cooked up to honor her legacy. At one point in the movie, Rachel Zegler’s Lucy Gray Baird bows after a performance, which was meant to be a tribute to the way Katniss would bow while trying to impress sponsors.

“What we tried to do was less trying to connect Lucy Gray to Katniss in that, we were always trying to find whatever moments we could, whether there’s sort of Easter eggs and things that just sort of build into the origins of the other movies,” Lawrence detailed. “So, you can now kind of go back to the other movies and look at them differently. Katniss had that sort of curtsy bow at the Reaping, and it was not written in the book or the script that Lucy Gray does this. I came up with the idea with Rachel for her to do it on the day. I just thought that’s a kind of cool idea to think that Katniss had heard through generations that there was a girl in the 10th Hunger Games that could’ve done this thing, and she’s doing something she’s heard about. So we were constantly trying to find things like that to do in this movie.”

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.

Stay tuned for updates about the future of the Hunger Games franchise.  

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