Lucretius Flickerman

Lucretius Flickerman, generally known by the nickname "Lucky Flickerman," was a weathercaster and amateur magician who was tapped to host the interviews from the 10th Hunger Games and later the Games themselves. He had a pet parrot named Jubilee.

Biography[]

Lucky Flickerman first appeared for the 10th Hunger Games for the interviews, described as The Hunger Games: A Night of Interviews. He welcomed the audience to a brand-new Hunger Games for a brand-new decade and explained the new sponsorship system in placed for the Games. He then worked through the interviews with those tributes who were available, as many tributes and mentors had been killed in the bombing of the Capitol Arena. He finally came to Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray Baird, and seeing that Lucy Gray was a born performer, didn't bother asking her questions that nobody cared about. He instead let her perform and she sang a song that wowed everyone, including him.^[1] He was, however, finally forced to usher her and Snow off the stage, despite calls for an encore. After the interviews, he went on television to give updates on the betting on the tributes. His performance in the interviews was considered enough of a success that he was tapped to host the Games themselves.^[2]

Before the Games began, Lucky hosted a pre-show, which featured only those seven mentors which had participated in the night of interviews. Coriolanus Snow was the only one who had fresh material, having devoted the entire interview to Lucy Gray, and as such Lucky was happy to let him run over his allotted time. Afterwards, Dean Casca Highbottom of the Academy appeared to speak about the mentor-tribute program. Lucky was taken aback by his comment that it would be a mistake to think that either side of the First Rebellion lacked courage, strength, or intelligence, asking if he was really comparing District children to Capitol children. When Highbottom pressed his point, Lucky could think of nothing to say other than that his views were "fascinating." When Highbottom commented drily that there was nobody whose opinion he valued more, Lucky replied that he was just a humble weatherman and amateur magician and seemingly pulled a candy from behind Highbottom's ear.^[3]

Lucky provided his own brand of colorful commentary throughout the Games. He spoke with Dr. Volumnia Gaul, head Gamemaker, about the relatively slow start to the Games. She replied that the bombing of the Capitol Arena had opened up new cracks into tunnels which the tributes could hide in, but they would come out when they needed food, thanks to the new sponsorship system. When she commented that the Games might last indefinitely, he replied that he hoped she had more magic tricks up her sleeve. She replied that she had a rabbit muttation that he could pull out of a hat, causing him to blanch and say that he had his own pets. He later irritated mentor Urban Canville, by referring to him as "Turban," leading Urban to whine that they should have gotten a professional.^[4]

At one point, he brought his pet parrot Jubilee, trying to get him to say "Hi, handsome!" to Dean Highbottom. The two of them discussed the new level of interactivity seen in the games, the dean noting that the bombing of the Capitol Arena had changed the landscape. He commented "We're all in the arena together, Lucky," but Lucky didn't understand what he was getting at and just then a despondent Jubilee finally said "Hi, handsome!" Later on, Lucky brought the parrot back out and tried to do a weather report with commentary from the parrot, but the parrot again refused to speak. He then started doing it himself, adopting a high-pitched voice to speak in the parrot's place.^[5]

Although there were many elements of the 10th Hunger Games that Dr. Gaul chose to erase from history, she thought it likely that she would keep Lucky around to continue hosting.^[6]

Personality and traits[]

He was described as being "clownish" and dressed in a high-collared blue suit with rhinestone accents, with gelled hair dusted in coppery powder. He spoke in a voice like a bird chirping and liked to entertain the crowd with amateur magic tricks. In the film, he is a more polished performer and does not appear as a subject of mockery.^[7]

Etymology[]

He shares his name with Titus Lucretius Carus, a Roman poet who described a universe that was guided by fortuna, "chance", and not divine intervention.

Trivia[]

• He shares his last name with Caesar Flickerman, and is quite likely related to him.
  • In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes film, he cancelled a dinner reservation for two adults and a highchair,^[7] implying that he has a partner and a young child. Since Caesar spent over forty years hosting the Hunger Games,^[8] he was likely at least in his sixties during the trilogy, making it possible that he could have been the child Lucky was referring to, meaning he would be his father.
• Lucky appears in the story earlier in the film than in the novel. He is first seen at the Capitol Zoo, where he essentially fills the role of Capitol News reporter Lepidus Malmsey from the novel. He is also implied to have been selected to be the host for the Games from the start, as opposed to the novel, in which this role is only finalized following the success of the interviews.
• On TikTok, the official Hunger Games account (@hungergamesofficial) put out several Capitol News reports starring Lucky in order to promote the film adaptation.
  • In one video, Lucky gave a breaking news report about how rumors of a rabies outbreak were a "complete fabrication, spread by treasonous outlaws intent on destroying our way of life". He then cracked a joke about how that "sounds like [his] in-laws", suggesting that he is married.^[9]
• During filming, Jason Schwartzman decided that Lucky needed a "nemesis", so with permission from Festus Creed's actor Max Raphael, he singled out Festus to pick on. According to Raphael, "We've got a whole backstory here. Festus, maybe he wants a career in broadcasting. Maybe Lucky babysat him when he was a kid, and he's just never gotten over how annoying he was. I don't know. That's for the fans to decide.”^[10]

References[]