After over a decade since its first attempt at adaptation, Disney+ is bringing Percy Jackson and the Olympians back to life as a series, and leading the cast are the adventurous trio of Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, and Aryan Simhadri as Grover. And the story starts where everything began: the story of The Lightning Thief.
Fans are excited to hear the news that the Trident has been passed from the big screen to the small screen and that author Rick Riordan is at the helm. So it’s expected that the series would be more aligned with the book than its 2010 film, famously starring Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, and Brandon T. Jackson.
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After years of development, production has finally wrapped, and the show will debut in early 2024.
However, the fans seem upset about the casting of Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, the daughter of Athena and Percy’s friend and love interest. The reason behind it is the color of her skin. Chase is canonically a white girl, and Jeffries is black.
In fact, the blowback ever since the announcement has been so bad that the young actress shared on an Instagram video that her TikTok account has actually been banned. That being said, Riordan and Daddario had her back and didn’t hesitate to voice out their support for her.
Following the announcement, Daddario sent her love to her successor, saying, “Leah Jeffries is going to be an incredible Annabeth!!!” On the other hand, Riordan had so much more to say.
Leah Jeffries is going to be an incredible Annabeth!!!
— Alexandra Daddario (@AADaddario) May 10, 2022
In his blog post titled “Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase,” the author condemned the critics who had been calling out the casting decision and bullying the young actress. He also demanded that the negative comments stop.
The author wrote that if anyone had a problem with Jeffries’ casting, then they should take it up with him. It was a deliberate decision for her to be part of the series, not a case of just filling a quota or checking off the diversity box (like most movies do, if we’re being honest).
That’s because even though she may not be the Annabeth that people who read the book imagined visually, she was every bit like the Annabeth every reader grew up with.
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“Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth.”
He also clarified that as the author of the story of the demigod Percy Jackson, he was looking for the best actors to inhabit and bring life to the characters he wrote. Thus, appearance was just a secondary factor to him. It was a long and tedious process, but they did find them. They were the best of the best. She was the best of the best.
He also added, “We should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong.” He then said that as much as they prepared Jeffries with this kind of reaction and the intense pressure on the role way before they started, the negative comments about her were just out of line. He thinks they need to stop immediately.
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Rebecca Riordan, the author’s wife and executive producer of the series, also spoke up about the issue on Twitter. She criticized the anger directed toward the young actress, talked about demagoguery and misogyny that became topics of discussion during the whole thing, and encouraged fans to be open-minded.
In her Instagram Live, Jeffries thanked everyone who supported her while she went through the racist backlash. She also told her haters to stop doing what they were doing. If they thought they were going to hurt her with their words, they wouldn’t.
She continued that she is confident in herself. “Everybody else is confident. Everybody else is happy for me. So don’t try to bring me down. It’s not going to work.”
If Rick Riordan trusts that Leah Jeffries is the best person to bring Annabeth Chase back to life, then we should all definitely trust him. After all, this is his story to tell.
