No, Jennifer Lawrence isn't going to be in the Hunger Games prequel

Jennifer Lawrence

Lionsgate is trying to recapture some of that old magic by reviving The Hunger Games, adapting Suzanne Collins’ prequel series The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes. It’s got lots of the ingredients you loved from the first time around, namely a plucky poor girl from District 12 (Rachel Zegler) who has to navigate the cruel excess of the Capitol as well as a fight to the death with a bunch of other kids. One thing it won’t have, though, is Jennifer Lawrence, says Jennifer Lawrence.

During Lawrence’s appearance on Watch What Happens Live, host Andy Cohen shared a fan question: “Is there any truth to the rumor you will appear in The Hunger Games prequel as Katniss’s grandmother? It does take place like, 49 years before The Hunger Games.”

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“Oh, ’cause I’m 49 in Hollywood years, huh?” Lawrence joked, adding decisively, “No, that’s not true.”

Songbirds And Snakes actually reportedly takes place more than 60 years before the events of The Hunger Games. Per ScreenRant, there is a character from the novel that some fans have speculated could be an Everdeen ancestor, Maude Ivory Baird. This very minor character is the cousin of protagonist Lucy Gray Baird, and the fan theory stems from one line of dialogue: “One hearing’s all my cousin Maude Ivory needs. That child never forgets anything with a tune.” Years later, Katniss would display a similar mockingjay-esque ability. This character was apparently depicted as a little kid in the novel, though, so it’s certainly not a natural fit for Lawrence to play.

Of course, the filmmakers could tweak the character, or have Lawrence play someone entirely unrelated to Katniss, if they really wanted to include her. (Francis Lawrence, who directed Jennifer in Catching Fire, Mockingjay, and Red Sparrow, is also directing the prequel film.) But it’s probably best for the film to stand on its own merits without relying on the former star for a minor cameo.

That’s not to say the new story isn’t relying on deep ties to the original series. Besides it being, well, about the Hunger Games, there are also lots of familiar characters like “Lucky” Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman), ancestor of Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), Tigris (Hunter Schafer), and young President Snow (Tom Blyth). Threading the needle between the familiar and fresh will be the primary challenge for Songbirds And Snakes.

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