NEW YORK (AP) — Following her breakout role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Rachel Zegler will star in Lionsgate’s planned Hunger Games prequel.
The studio announced Tuesday that Zegler will play Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the sequel to the Hunger Games saga set decades before Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen. Katniss participated in the 74th Hunger Games; Byrd will take part in the 10th Hunger Games.
Susan Collins, whose books were adapted into the $3 billion blockbuster franchise, published a prequel novel in 2020 on which The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is based. In the film, Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute to the impoverished District 12, sings at a key moment during the harvest ceremony. Zegler stars alongside Tom Blyth, who plays 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow.
“Our casting team, Deb Zane and Dylan Jury, led an exhaustive search, looking at hundreds of actors in search of our perfect Lucy Grey. That quest ended when Rachel Zegler blew the roof with her talent as an actress, singer and performer, producer Nina Jacobson said in a statement. control the stage while her inner strength and humanity transform those around her.”
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Lionsgate will release the film in theaters on November 17, 2023.
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