Rachel Zegler’s Hunger Games Character Is The ‘Anti-Katniss’

Calling Katniss “asexual” seems like it’s going just a bit too far, but Lawrence’s essential thesis about the young tribute from District 12 isn’t fully in bad faith. When we meet Katniss in the first book and film, she’s highly protective of her mother and sister and spends her time illegally hunting in the woods outside of the district with her childhood best friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth). Before long, she’s forced to compete in the Hunger Games — a brutal ritual devised by the all-powerful Capitol to keep the districts in line, where two children from each district are sent to fight to the death — when her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is chosen, and Katniss volunteers in her stead.

Author Suzanne Collins threw a somewhat obligatory love triangle into the franchise — throughout it, Katniss is torn between Gale and her Hunger Games ally turned stage boyfriend Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) — but in the books, which are told from Katniss’ first-person perspective, it’s clear love isn’t her first priority. This is extremely understandable, especially when, in “Mockingjay,” she becomes the face of a dangerous revolution. Katniss does have sporadic romantic feelings, but relationships aren’t at the front of her mind… which, frankly, is refreshing for a young adult heroine.