'Lucy Gray is the opposite': Francis Lawrence describes Rachel Zegler's Hunger Games character as the 'anti-Katniss'

Francis Lawrence has described Rachel Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird as the "anti-Katniss" in the 'Hunger Games' prequel.

The 52-year-old director questioned if fans would embrace a movie without Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' but is comforted by the fact that Zegler's alter ego is the total opposite of Jennifer's protagonist.

Francis told Empire magazine: "Katniss was an introvert and a survivor. She was quite quiet and stoic, you could almost say (she was) asexual. Lucy Gray is the opposite. She wears her sexuality on her sleeve, (and) she really is a performer."

The director compared how Katniss became a reluctant face of a rebellion and suggested that Lucy Gray is a showwoman by comparison.

Francis said: "(Lucy Gray) loves crowds. She knows how to play crowds and manipulate people."

Lucy Gray is the love interest for 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), the tyrannical president of Panam who was introduced to audiences in the original 'Hunger Games' movies.

Producer Nina Jacobson said: "He is a shape-shifter who craves control but is drawn to a woman who threatens everything he thought he wanted."

Jennifer Lawrence does not feature in the cast of the new movie – slated for release in November – but previously revealed that she is "totally" open to a return to 'The Hunger Games'.

Asked about the possibility during a Zoom interview with Variety, the 33-year-old actress said: "Oh, my God – totally! If Katniss ever could ever come back into my life, 100 per cent.

"My producing partner just clutched her heart."