Hunger Games fans were thrilled about the Katniss Everdeen reference in the latest Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes trailer, and franchise director Francis Lawrence has now shared the reason for its inclusion.
The new trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes prequel opens with a familiar folk ballad, "The Hanging Tree", though, this time, Rachel Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird, who penned the track in the novels, is on lead vocals. Her haunting rendition plays over the footage, and fans were delighted to hear it again.
It is a well-known song in the Hunger Games franchise, originally appearing in the 2010 novel Mockingjay, written by Suzanne Collins, before being sung by Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen in the 2014 film adaptation Mockingjay Part 1, and now the upcoming prequel movie The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Hearing ‘The Hanging Tree’ song was enough to take my hype for this film to whole new level ???? https://t.co/AOWbw3Ffl6
— brosecco ? (@lovvewolf) September 21, 2023
lucy writing/singing the hanging tree as snow is approaching her…*chills* !!!
— grace ? (@_sapphicrhaegon) September 21, 2023
Look that audio of Zegler singing The Hanging Tree…girl is about to slay so hard I can’t pic.twitter.com/i8HtTtT5Y4
— Kennedy (she/her) (@OctopusSoap) September 21, 2023
Can we plz give a little commotion for Rachel singing hanging tree?! @rachelzegler chills all over.
— juliana (@longlive_21) September 21, 2023
RACHEL SINGING THE HANGING TREE I AM LOSING MY MIND
— ace ?? (@spillgayz) September 20, 2023
can we talk about how different the hanging tree sounds in tbosas & thg? i love it so much because it shows the passage of time since the songs are only ever passed down orally, not written, no notes. so they shift and change as each person sings it a bit uniquely
— peyton ! (@trapsupontraps) September 20, 2023
The escape scene where Lucy pretends to dig up some katniss plant and set up a snake trap to kill Snow. She sings The Hanging Tree before Snow kills her - the song she wrote after the execution of a rebel and sung by Katniss Everdeen years later. Cinema! https://t.co/0byqCfKmlf pic.twitter.com/BFTNNt6PA4
— cassius ? (@timmyswift13) September 20, 2023
living off the hanging tree (rachel zegler's version) crumbs rewatching the trailer on and on until november 17
— kimi ? | ?️? (@kimichkis) September 20, 2023
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly breaking down all of the Hunger Games Easter eggs in the new trailer, director Francis Lawrence explained why "The Hanging Tree" was given such a prominent role in the latest preview, emphasising the importance of the song's origins and highlighting its relevance to Lucy in particular.
"She's a performer," Lawrence said of Zegler's character. "After witnessing a man being hanged for multiple murders, she crafts 'The Hanging Tree,' which is, of course, 65 years later in these stories, a song we hear Katniss singing. So this is a song that's been passed down through generations of people in District 12."
Some fan theories suggest that Lucy may have connections to the Everdeen family (as Katniss' grandmother). However, Lawrence hinted that people should redirect their attention to Lucy's cousin, as he asserted: "I think Maude Ivory, the youngest in the Covey, is related to the Everdeens in the grand mythology of everything."
The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes takes place 60 years before the original Hunger Games, when the brutal games were only 10 years in. As such, it's a very different film with a very different type of hero, one that Lawrence describes as the "anti-Katniss", so we shouldn't expect too many similarities between the two characters.
All will be revealed when The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes premieres in theaters on November 17.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
