{"id":13167,"date":"2022-05-13T01:06:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T01:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/percy-jackson-author-pens-powerful-letter-in-defense-of-casting-new-annabeth-chase\/"},"modified":"2022-05-13T01:06:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T01:06:05","slug":"percy-jackson-author-pens-powerful-letter-in-defense-of-casting-new-annabeth-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/percy-jackson-author-pens-powerful-letter-in-defense-of-casting-new-annabeth-chase\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Percy Jackson’ author pens powerful letter in defense of casting new Annabeth Chase"},"content":{"rendered":"
When my son got into the “Percy Jackson” books in the sixth grade, I hadn’t really heard of the series but I learned it’s much like the “Harry Potter” for Gen Zers. Enormously thick books were devoured in under a week and alarms were set for the next release in the series. Searches were on for the super-secret hidden book that wraps up a few loose ends and a fandom was born. But when the books were made into a live action movie, true fans of the series were left confused and disappointed, so when it was discovered that “Percy Jackson” was getting a reboot, fans rejoiced. Then the cast was announced, which should have been a moment of celebration for the fantastic actors chosen and the effort to bring representation to Greek mythology, but some fans were less than thrilled. <\/p>\n
Leah Jeffries, a Black girl, and Aryan Simhadri, an Indian American boy, were cast to play Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, Percy’s best friends. The trio go on adventures and help each other out of sketchy predicaments that can only be experienced by demigods and satyrs. But\u2026 it didn’t take long for naysayers to start piping up over fictional characters being represented by people of color, particularly Annabeth being played by a Black girl, when the character in the series has blond hair. Eventually, the growing discontent caught the attention of none other than Rick Riordan<\/a> himself and he not only took to Twitter to defend the young star, but wrote a beautiful strong condemnation of these comments in a letter on his website.<\/p>\n Riordan didn’t shy away from calling out racism in the comments, writing, \u201cYou 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 of lei could have been based on merit, \u201dhe wrote. “Without having seen her play the part di lei, you have pre-judged her di lei (pre + judge = prejudice) and decided she must have been hired simply to fill a quota or tick a diversity box.” Riordan was very clear when he called out the problematic behavior from fans of the series. <\/p>\n
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