Percy Jackson has begun filming and formally announced part of its cast. This casting has generated positive and negative reactions from fans, with some responses from fans attacking the diversity of the series cast.
In January 2022, Disney greenlit a TV series based on the book series Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan. This announcement has been met with cautious optimism by fans. While fans of the hit book series are excited to see the series adapted to screen, the first attempt was met with a negative reaction from fans. Negative responses were due to changes from the source material and issues with how producers cast the movie. As the cast for the Disney+ series begins to come out, fans continue to have had mixed reactions.
The Cast
Many fans took issue with the cast of the 2010 movie due to the actors’ age and appearances not matching the descriptions from the books. Some of these concerns have carried over to the cast of the new series.
The cast of the Disney+ Percy Jackson series was first released on April 11, 2022, with the announcement of Percy Jackson. The release was followed by the announcement of Grover and Annabeth on May 5, 2022. Since then, eight more cast members have been announced.
One of the most significant changes in the casting from the movie to the series has been the increase in the diversity of the cast. The original film only featured 2 POC that played named characters in the movie. The series cast features 5 POC in prominent roles with still more characters to be cast. However, not all the reactions to the series casting have been positive.
Fan Reactions
The negative response began soon after Leah Jefferies, a young black actress, was cast as Annabeth, who is usually depicted as white with blond hair. There was a backlash from some fans about the casting. This adverse reaction was primarily due to Jefferies not matching the book description. These responses quickly turned racist and began targeting the young actress directly.
Rick Riordan was quick to release a statement in defense of Jefferies, saying, “I have been clear, as the author, that I was looking for the best actors to inhabit and bring to life the personalities of these characters, and that physical appearance was secondary for me. We did that. We took a year to do this process thoroughly and find the best of the best. This trio is the best. Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase.”
Riordan also clarified how the negative reviews are rooted in racial bias. “You are judging her appropriateness for this role solely and exclusively on how she looks. She is a Black girl playing someone who was described in the books as white. Friends, that is racism.”
The Future of the Series
The series has started filming and is set to be released in 2023 on the streaming platform Disney+. As new cast members are announced, excitement from the fans increases. This series has the potential to far outshine its movie counterpart in many categories, including in its casting. This increase in the series’ cast’s diversity compared to the movie’s cast allows for groups of young people to see themselves on the screen in a genre that usually doesn’t do an excellent job of representing them. In other young adult film adaptations, the cast tends to not feature a lot of diversity, especially in the first movie or season. The first Hunger Games film had five named POC in the cast. The first Divergent film had four. The first Harry Potter film had three named POC characters and the first Maze Runner film had six named POC characters. Even without all the casting announced the Percy Jackson show is already showing promise at having a diverse group of actors in a genre that usually leaves them underrepresented.
I know the article is over a year old, but wanted to point out that there is another type of inclusive casting in this series. Timothy Omundson, a longtime TV actor and stroke survivor who is partially paralyzed, is playing the god Hephaestus, who in mythology and in the Riordan books is disabled. Great to see this series being so strongly diverse and inclusive on every front!