Leah’s comment on tiktok is golden. that kid really knows how to talk to racist bullies but like she shouldn’t have to? She’s TWELVE. And she’s playing a huge role in a very well loved kids series. No part of her experience should involve the annoying buzz of internet bs. She’s a child and she shouldn’t have to come up with creative ways to respond to cowards on the internet but you just know that this is gonna be a recurring problem because some folks can’t fathom not being a prick. These people are grown ass adults and they’re bullying children? Embarrassing as fuck. Get a life
I honestly don’t even come on this website much anymore but I am breaking my silence to shout this from the rooftops. I don’t care what the reaction to this is, I stand by it 10000000000% and you’re not changing my mind.
Is it okay to be excited about the casting? Yes!!! Of course!! Is it also okay to wish there had been a different outcome? ALSO YES.
(And for those of you who are ready to click away, or turn into a furious keyboard warrior before going any further, I sincerely challenge you to read till the end. A weak-minded person refuses to examine things from anything other than their own perspective. Prove me wrong!!!!)
Here’s the real talk most of you aren’t ready to hear. If Rick Riordan collaborated with Disney+ to develop an original show with original characters, with a totally new plot and story and everything, and this girl was cast as the main female lead and people said “Ugh, this is so disappointing, why is she black????” THAT WOULD BE RACIST. If, in our current scenario someone said “I really wish she wasn’t black, black people are ugly/stupid/bad actors/etc.” THAT WOULD BE RACIST. Saying “Annabeth was a white girl with blonde hair in the books so I wish she was being portrayed as a white girl with blonde hair in the show” IS NOT RACIST.
We live in a society that preys on the majority of the population’s desire to be good. And I really and truly do believe that–most people are GOOD!! No normal sane person wants to be labeled as a racist. Unfortunately, people with nefarious intentions know this and have begun using this word as a weapon. Don’t agree with me?? You’re a racist!!!!!! In that person’s eyes, they are on superior moral ground, therefore they have already won the “argument”. All productive conversation is shut down. This word has become so normalized that it downplays actual REAL HARMFUL racism that is hurting people around the world on a daily basis. RACISM IS REAL. It exists anywhere that humans look different from each other. It can have devastating consequences. And I find it incredibly disrespectful to the victims of it to throw this word around as loosely as we do now.
All it takes is about five seconds of critical thinking to realize that maybe the majority of people who are expressing disappointment about this are not all evil white supremacists. Guys. Annabeth Chase is one of the most well-known middle grade/YA literary characters of all time. She has been a main character and/or featured in The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian, The Lost Hero, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, The Blood of Olympus, The Sword of Summer, The Hammer of Thor, The Ship of the Dead, The Tower of Nero, and several short stories and novellas: The Demigod Diaries, The Demigod Files, The Staff of Serapis, The Crown of Ptolemy. Her first appearance was in The Lightning Thief, which was published in 2005. This is a character who has been living in people’s minds for damn near twenty years. She has been depicted by both fan artists AND professional artists alike for that entire time as a white girl with blonde hair. She is smack dab in the middle of the cover of House of Hades as a white girl with blonde hair. We have been staring at her in beloved fan arts as a white girl with blonde hair for YEARS (those of you as ancient as I am will remember the heyday of Burdge and Viria. Shout out to both of them, I LIVED for their work back in the day!). Saying that someone is racist for wanting a beloved and well-known character they have been visualizing for seventeen years to look the way they were DEPICTED for seventeen years RACISTS for doing so is just SILLY.
Saying a character’s physical appearance means nothing is equally as silly. Apparently everyone is too young to remember or has conveniently forgotten the uproar that was heard and felt when Alexandra Daddario portrayed Annabeth as a brunette. If you talked to a PJO fan about the movie back in 2010, I can ASSURE you, one of the first things out of their mouths was: “Annabeth is supposed to have blonde hair!!!!!!!” People did not like that choice of actress and it was simply because she did not resemble the physical description of Annabeth in the books. Anyone else remember the fuss that was made over Daniel Radcliffe not having green eyes as Harry Potter?? Or the bad dye job they gave Josh Hutcherson to play Peeta?? None of those things involved race. Book fans STILL complained about them. The bottom line is this: die-hard fans want the actors on screen to look like the characters they imagined in their minds. AND THAT IS OKAY!!!!!!!
Guess what??? I would be JUST as pissed if they cast Percy as a redhead (and for those of you saying he was cast as a blonde, mark my words…they’ll still dye his hair black. And if they don’t at this point, it’ll just be to try and prove a point). I would be JUST as pissed if, down the road, they cast Hazel as a white girl, Leo as a blonde white kid, Piper and Frank as ANYTHING other than Cherokee and Chinese. What they are in the book is what I want to see on the screen. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH BLACK PEOPLE. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS GIRL AS A HUMAN BEING OR AN ACTRESS. DIVERSITY SHOULD BE CELEBRATED. I JUST WANT ANNABETH TO LOOK LIKE SHE LOOKS IN THE BOOKS. THAT’S REALLY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s honestly not that deep!!!!!!!!!!!
It has nothing to do with white people vs black people, it just simply has to do with book fans wanting to see what they saw in their minds for nearly two decades play out on a screen in front of them. That’s it!!!!!!!!!
Calling people racists over this is immature and cheap, you guys. People on this site (and in life in general) really need to learn how to disagree without becoming hostile and dramatic. If you’re happy and excited about the casting, that’s great! I’m happy you’re happy. There is so much negative bad shit in the world, anything you can find to be happy about is great. Leah Sava Jeffries is a beautiful little girl. I’m sure she’s sweet and intelligent and an extremely talented actress. I would never ever want to see her bullied or harassed for any of this and anyone who does so should be condemned. (Honestly though, 99.9% of internet “haters” have the intellectual and emotional maturity of the mountain troll from the first Harry Potter so trying to explain to them that this is not only pointless, but morally wrong, is a waste of time and effort). I can say all of this AND also say that she is not who I would have liked to see play Annabeth. That does not make me a racist. It makes me a book purist. Learn to recognize the difference, guys.
SAYING THAT YOU’RE “DISAPPOINTED SHE ISN’T WHITE LIKE SHE IS IN THE BOOKS” IS JUST AS RACIST AS SAYING “DISAPPOINTED THAT ANNABETH IS BLACK”
JUST CUZ YOU AREN’T USING THE WORD BLACK IN YOUR SENTENCE DOESNT MEAN YOU AREN’T BEING RACIST.
I can literally picture this girl telling Walker Scobell that he drools in his sleep and that’s all I care about. I took one look at her face and I JUST KNOW that she is gonna be capable of pulling off every witty line from Annabeth. Like I’m ready.
i dont usually post about things outside of the cmq-verse, but i wanted to quickly address one thing:
if you don’t like leah jeffries’ casting as annabeth chase, unfollow me right fucking now. any bullying of her will get you reported and blocked on sight. i don’t play with racist hate speech, but especially if it’s thrown at children. leah earned her part. she’ll be a phenomenal annabeth. and you can keep it to yourself if you don’t agree.
The casting so far for PJO has been . However, I find it funny how y’all were mad about Leah being cast as Annabeth but don’t got absolutely nothing to say about Mr. Glynn playing Chiron. I’ll remember that. Y’all was making thee dumbest excuses only to be silent now. Y’all clearly don’t think we don’t notice that but we do and we’re not forgetting it anytime soon.
It’s almost as if y'all don’t like the idea of black girls being casted in lead roles, especially when said lead role is a romantic interest :0
People keep asking me why I’m so chill and acceptable about the casting of the Percy Jackson series, and I really don’t know what to tell you other than the fact that I’m not racist.
Friendly reminder than if I hear anything bad about Aryan or Leah it is on sight. If you have any opinions on how they’re not “book accurate” keep those opinions to yourself because they’re kids and don’t deserve hate for something they can’t control.
The way we are going to get to watch Leah and Walker act out the Percabeth love story.
We’re going to watch their annoyance with each other turn into friendship turn into love.
We’re going to watch them put their lives on the line for each other, laugh with each other, comfort each other and finally realize how much they love each other.
Saw someone on twitter say they didn’t like Annabeth being racebent but was fine with Grover because it made sense for his character…the only lead you’re fine with not being white is the one that’s half animal…
Rick Riordan’s response to the racism and hatred directed at Leah after she was cast as Annabeth:
“Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase”
“This post is specifically for those who have a problem with the casting of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase. It’s a shame such posts need to be written, but they do. First, let me be clear I am speaking here only for myself. These thoughts are mine alone. They do not necessarily reflect or represent the opinions of any part of Disney, the TV show, the production team, or the Jeffries family.
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 hero they want to be.
If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me. You have no one else to blame. Whatever else you take from this post, we should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong. As strong as Leah is, as much as we have discussed the potential for this kind of reaction and the intense pressure this role will bring, the negative comments she has received online are out of line. They need to stop. Now.
I was quite clear a year ago, when we announced our first open casting, that we would be following Disney’s company policy on nondiscrimination: We are committed to diverse, inclusive casting. For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to disability, gender, race and ethnicity, age, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other basis prohibited by law. We did that. The casting process was long, intense, massive and exhaustive.
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.
Some of you have apparently felt offended or exasperated when your objections are called out online as racist. “But I am not racist,” you say. “It is not racist to want an actor who is accurate to the book’s description of the character!”
Let’s examine that statement.
You are upset/disappointed/frustrated/angry because a Black actor has been cast to play a character who was described as white in the books. “She doesn’t look the way I always imagined.”
You either are not aware, or have dismissed, Leah’s years of hard work honing her craft, her talent, her tenacity, her focus, her screen presence. You refuse to believe her selection could have been based on merit. Without having seen her play the part, you have pre-judged her (pre + judge = prejudice) and decided she must have been hired simply to fill a quota or tick a diversity box. And by the way, these criticisms have come from across the political spectrum, right and left.
You have decided that I couldn’t possibly mean what I have always said: That the true nature of the character lies in their personality. You feel I must have been coerced, brainwashed, bribed, threatened, whatever, or I as a white male author never would have chosen a Black actor for the part of this canonically white girl.
You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given. Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true.
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.
And before you resort to the old kneejerk reaction — “I am not racist!” — let’s examine that statement too.
If I may quote from an excellent recent article in the Boston Globe about Dr. Khama Ennis, who created a program on implicit bias for the Massachusetts Board of Registration for Medicine in Boston: “To say a person doesn’t have bias is to say that person isn’t human. It’s how we navigate the world … based on what we’re taught and our own personal histories.”
Racism/colorism isn’t something we have or don’t have. I have it. You have it. We all do. And not just white people like me. All people. It’s either something we recognize and try to work on, or it’s something we deny. Saying “I am not racist!” is simply declaring that you deny your own biases and refuse to work on them.
The core message of Percy Jackson has always been that difference is strength. There is power in plurality. The things that distinguish us from one another are often our marks of individual greatness. You should never judge someone by how well they fit your preconceived notions. That neurodivergent kid who has failed out of six schools, for instance, may well be the son of Poseidon. Anyone can be a hero.
If you don’t get that, if you’re still upset about the casting of this marvelous trio, then it doesn’t matter how many times you have read the books. You didn’t learn anything from them.
Watch the show or don’t. That’s your call. But this will be an adaptation that I am proud of, and which fully honors the spirit of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, taking the bedtime story I told my son twenty years ago to make him feel better about being neurodivergent, and improving on it so that kids all over the world can continue to see themselves as heroes at Camp Half-Blood.”
[ID: an illustration of annabeth chase putting a new york yankees cap on her younger self. both annabeths are wearing orange camp-half blood t-shirts and camp necklaces. the older annabeth is drawn how she is described in the percy jackson books, as a teenage white girl with blonde hair. her shirt is tucked into high-waisted jean shorts and her hair is in a ponytail. the younger annabeth is drawn as leah jeffries, the actress for annabeth on the percy jackson tv show. she is a young black girl with brown hair styled in box braids that are blonde at the end. she also has green beads at the end of each braid, which match her green cargo pants. the older annabeth smiles gently as her younger self grins up at her. text above the younger annabeth’s head reads, “’Go get ‘em, kid’”. the background is a light blue-violet gradient. there is a watermark on the illustration which says “alkalinefrog@tumblr do not repost”. /end ID.]
ALT
