Rick Riodan Defends Disney’s Percy Jackson Series’ Diverse Casting Choices

Summary

• Percy Jackson and the Olympians is set to debut on Disney+ in December, offering a more faithful adaptation of Rick Riordan’s novels.
• The casting choices for the series have faced online criticism, particularly Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase.
• Riordan defends the casting decisions, emphasizing the importance of updating the story for a new audience and disproving speculation about quotas or wokeness.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians will debut on Disney+ in December, presenting a new adaptation of Rick Riordan‘s acclaimed novels, which will look to eradicate the memory of the much-derided movies that came before it. And although most fans are happy and eager to see the show, online criticism has not been far away regarding the cast of the series.

It was back in 2020 when the House of Mouse announced that they were developing a series based on Riordan’s franchise, with a plan to more faithfully adapt the source material. Something similar to what Warner Bros. Discovery wants to do with Harry Potter, or Netflix with The Chronicles of Narnia. The series will star The Adam Project’s Walker Scobell as Percy, Aryan Simhadri (Trevor: The Musical) as Grover Underwood, and Beast’s Leah Jeffries, who has been at the center of the storm after being cast as Annabeth Chase.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly to promote the upcoming release of the show, Riordan broke the silence on the criticism received due to the casting choices, defending the decisions made in relation to the casting of the series. For the writer, it was important for the new adaptation to feel updated:

“In terms of updating the story 20 years on, it was important that I looked at it again with fresh eyes and made sure that the story was speaking to all kids, and that everyone could look at this series and see themselves.”

The author also showed his support for Jeffries’ casting, especially after the actress received some negative comments from people on social media:

“She should not have to deal with that. She should be allowed to practice her profession and her art, and to be recognized as a talented actor who got a part because she merited getting the part, without dealing with this speculation of it was only this or it was only that — ‘It was a quota, It was wokeness,’ whatever, blah, blah, blah. That didn’t sit well with me… this is clearly not a valid thing to attack a young girl who worked very hard, and was cast out of hundreds of other young actresses that we looked at, because she was so good at embodying the soul, the personality of that character.”

Related: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Teases and Epic Journey with First Teaser

Who Else Stars in Percy Jackson and the Olympians?

Disney+

Joining the young trio of stars will be a long list of big names, playing some relevant characters from the world of Percy Jackson. Toby Stephens will be playing Poseidon, father of Percy and God of the sea, the late Lance Reddick stars as Zeus, God of the sky, thunder and lightning and Virginia Kull is playing Sally Jackson, mother of Percy.

The cast also includes Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, the messenger of the Gods; Jay Duplass as Hades, king of the underworld and God of dead; Adam Copeland as Ares, the God of war; Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, and many others.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ first season is coming to Disney+ on December 20.

You can view the original article HERE.