Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson & The Olympians

Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase in Percy Jackson & The Olympians.

Since the main cast of Percy Jackson for Disney+ was first announced, there’s been a disheartening amount of backlash in response to some of the choices that were made, namely when it comes to the decision to cast Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase. In the books, Annabeth is described as a young white girl, with blonde hair and gray eyes. Jeffries, on the other hand, is a young Black girl. Since the reveal of her role as Annabeth in the upcoming series, Jeffries has faced a considerable amount of racist remarks and critique revolving around her portrayal of the character, all of which have come before she’s even had a chance to make it to the screen. 

The Disney+ series will be co-written by Riordan as well this time around, who also helped with the casting process. Unfortunately, when Leah was first announced as Annabeth, she faced racist backlash which Riordan had to address on his official website.

“The response to the casting of Leah has been overwhelmingly positive and joyous, as it should be. Leah brings so much energy and enthusiasm to this role, so much of Annabeth’s strength. She will be a role model for new generations of girls who will see in her the kind of hero they want to be,” he began.

The Percy Jackson franchise is no stranger to casting complaints; the 2010 movie and its subsequent sequel were bombarded with critique over the casting choice, which focused mainly on the age of the characters (most of which were in their late teens and early 20s, when the original book characters were all mostly between 11 and 13), but also saw some grief over the choice of casting a brunette (Alexandra Daddario) as the traditionally blonde Annabeth Chase.