Same!

agreed, i was skeptical at first but thought it was a good decision after watching 👍

yea, leah is such a good actor but i was still disappointed that it wasn’t accurate

It speaks for Leah that she got so many fans for her role although she looks totally different than book Annabeth. She just gets Annabeth' personality so perfectly that looks get totally unimportant.

Yes!

I love how he saw personality and not looks. I don't like it when producers say "lets be modern and add more diversity in the cast". But when they say "Let's see who just gets our characters, no matter how they look" it gets amazing.

Ikrrr fr

They made big deal about it?

Mantzoukas is literally how I imagined Dionysus would be when I read the books and watched him play Adrian pimento in b99

@@sofiabento3024got her account banned twice and sent slurs to the child to the point she responded

If someone just can’t deal with a character not looking like in the books that's okay, just don't watch. But don't insult the poor child playing the character.

How old is he??

​@@KateEason-dx6bd14

SAMEEE

BRO LITERALLY

ME TOO

Same😂😂

Exactly!!

Ikr

Yaaaa omg

I mean you could just be saying that because she's black but whatever

@@SourSweets8217 if it aint true to the books it aint true at all . Everyonr in their right mind can see disney polluting great series with diversity and shit and destroy everything. Then there are people like you who just say racist because calling out black people cmon

Real

very much agree. As long as the actors nail their roles and we will see the characters from the books in them, its already enough

Do you realize that argument can be used for the pjo movies aswell?

@thekicker2517 what’s ur point

​@@thekicker2517okay and?

I though Aryan did grover so well?!?!!

Grover was probably one of the best matched. I love Leah’s personality and acting but I don’t think the looks match very well…

Its Disney +

It’s a Disney+ series. Let’s just hope Disney doesn’t horribly ruin the book adaptation again. The movies wouldn’t be bad on their own, but when u consider that their based on the books, they are absolutely dog sh*t

@@Bxcketzz well they hired the author to help write and oversee the production of the show. Kind of hard to bitch about how it’s not true to the books when the author of the books is helping produce the show 🤷‍♂️

It IS a big deal though

@@thechroniclesof2sassyfreshmans girl how?? 😭

frrr and the blonde thing was important only bcs it was stereotyped as being dumb etc, a young black girl faces as horrible issues as these, so there's absolutely no point in hating this much

zeus is white not black so is mr brunner. they pretty much diversed washed every character.

100% agree! Even if she isn’t blonde, it has nothing to do with her character, so I don’t see what the problem is. People are just getting worked up because Leah doesn’t match the vision they had in their head.

@@ariesdork5283 that’s not true I have to do with changing characters for no reason learn to make new ones will never get original black or other race characters that’s the point you idiot just like lord rings of power did with the new black elf character and he was amazing and a new character

@@ariesdork5283 "It has nothing to do with her character" Its THE character who has to do with it ...

@@joelschittenhelm5571it does have to do with her character, but it won’t effect the entire storyline. it’s just a minor detail.

@@ariesdork5283 1)no one is threatening her,just sharing disappointment 2)its a children series,so ofc there will be immature poeple mad about the fact 3)being blonde was one of annabeths main personality development features,since she was a child of athena,facing stereotypes about being dumb

19

Its actually KY-Ron

@@33awesomeman33 are u talking about spelling cuz the Greeks k and c were the same letter like how some see calypso like Kalypso

I think we should give her a chance because it how they play Annabeth not look

I agree and I’m black. I’m sorry but the first movie messed l Annabeths character because of looks- the black hair and blue eyes was a direct diss. Now this is arguably worse. Brown hair and brown eyes. They could at least give her blonde braids and grey eye contacts because why even write character descriptions at all if you’re going to throw them away in the movie. She was always supposed to be blonde. I’m not saying she can’t be played by a black girl or Asian idc as long as she has blonde hair and grey eyes.

Welcome to woke Disney where they mess up many beloved characters just to have representation, sucks but that's how it is now. Can we go back to the times when Harry Potter was casted and they went with people who looked closely to the characters?

@@deaselgaming9687define woke

@Festaaa woke is the need for representation of many ethnicities, religions, colors, etc. Instead of just keep the original characters how they look or where presented. For instance If a character is white keep them white. Don't change stuff that don't need changed. If you wanna make a character different just create a new character, as long as it fits in the story You're not gonna upset people. All the characters in Percy jackson are Greek/Roman and there are plenty of diverse characters in the story from Latina and African American there's no reason to change Grover and Annabeth.

Hes not in the first book

Probably Jada Smith at this point

I see what you mean about Superman, but also, why do you think he’s white in the first place? In fact, why do think the majority of comic book superheroes are white? Why you do think there’s a lot less POC main characters? ✨Erasure✨

@@ariesdork5283 It's not about white or black it's a bout established. And also why can't we just make more good black characters anyway like Miles Morallis. The issue is that the companies are lazy. Superman as a character is well developed because of time and effort. To me saying let's make superman black is like saying I don't feel like using time and money to create a black Icon, let's just change a characters pigment. I'd be more offended for race swapping an established character tbh

@@cameronheron8551 I see what you mean. I definitely agree there should be original, well-written black characters in media. I’m just defending the idea of casting POC actors as already existing characters. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it.

The point is will never have original black or other race characters if they keep taking white characters and changing them has nothing to do with the actor or actress they have to do with originality

​@@kingnate101 Hazel Levesque, Maria Levesque, Leo Valdez, Esperanza Valdez and their entire family tree, Charles Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, Ethan Nakamura, Chiara Benvenuti, Piper McLean, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano and her sister Hylla, Frank Zhang and his family, Grover Underwood, Sherman Yang, Carter Kane, Walt Stone, Blitzen, all diverse original characters from the Riordanverse, need I go on?

@fictionalgirl05... you're a DEMIGOD.

@@aquatic_cyana I mean I do have ADHD...

@@fictional-girl_05 :0 it ‘twas meant to be…

That’s not the point. She was written to have grey eyes and blonde hair. No movie has ever given us that. That is the least we want. Idc if she’s black but at least have her features like hair and eyes match the character sheesh. If they won’t make this movie like how it’s written I for sure hell will. Give us what we want

Annabeth's main character comes from her desire to go on a quest and leave a lasting impact on the world through her architecture. The only time she is really concerned about her hair colour is when she's with Aphrodite or that one time she felt people with brown hair would be taken more seriously. And besides, the blonde dumb stereotype has been broken by countless other characters and was only a major issue like 20 years ago

@@Amaryllis-jc7fb that's when the books are set

@@Haze_d so it would be different for an adaptation in 2024

@@Amaryllis-jc7fb To put one typ of descrimination up against another one and say one isnt relavant anymore is just an insult to the people suffering from it. You cant change what you have written about a character, not even as the author

@@joelschittenhelm5571lease tell me you aren’t saying that dumb blonde stereotypes is on par with racism 😅 because one actually is a danger to the people suffering from it where they can get killed and the other is a stereotype that has been discredited many years ago and means that people might think you’re pretty, naive to the point that you are stupid and harmless. You can very much put one discrimination up against another in this case especially when one isn’t even something people suffer from anymore. Edit because I feel like I need to give you a whole educations on racism and why it’s a real thing compared to blonde girls being persecuted: No one suffers from being blonde and it is considered outdated because there’s been many pieces of media that have discredited this stereotype so no one actually thinks ‘this chic is blonde, she must be so dumb!’ To have this be an issue for her in the show would sound so out of touch with reality and would make her seem so privileged. However, while there has been in recent years a lot of black characters brought to the screen, there is still a lot of racism to fight through exposure to different people on screen because this issue is a lot more serious and the stereotypes brought about by racism are a lot more embedded into western civilization. Thank slavery for that. Like for the longest of times and subconsciously today, many think black people are uneducated because of the way they talk, because being black was synonymous with being from a bad neighbourhood so that means poor, and black girls were seen as easy (why else do black fathers always leave? They choose badly and are dumb). See? Actual stereotype today that is just a minuscule part of Annabeth’s character (in that she gets underestimated for her looks). In fact, Rick riordan has said that he wanted to make his characters poc in the original series but couldn’t because racism was worse back in the day and he didn’t have the influence he does now in the literary world. So he was effectively force to white wash all of the characters. Now that he can redo this series the way he wants to through another medium, he’s explained that he can fix mistakes he’s made in the books (like continuously mixing up the gender of Blackjack) and he can do things the way he wanted to in the first place. Maybe Annabeth being blonde is something you hold deeply to heart and you can, but at the end of the day, these are rick’s characters, and if he wants to do something new with them in this adaptation, he can. Just don’t watch the show and reread the books, annabeth will always be blonde there! Thanks for coming to my tedtalk!

You obviously missed the point it has nothing to do with her as an actor has to do with characterization I even said put her in a different role so it has nothing to do with her you idiot

I’m not mad at her because she’s black im black. Im mad they didn’t cast a person who at least somewhat resembles the original character. I’ve seen black girls with blonde hair and they didn’t even go that route which shows the casting is a complete diss to the books and as an avid fan I can’t support such a choice in the name of being accurate to the book it’s literally incorrect. This movie is the fan fiction version of Percy Jackson not a remake of the OG movie which also butchered casting and character personalities

@@ravenderose and yet this series is approved of by the author of the books and he is actively engaged in the filming of the series. While you are entitled to your opinion (as we all are) you might want to keep that in mind. The man who is actually responsible for creating the original story has signed off on the casting choices

@@ravenderoseI’m black and I have no problem with it. Go cry more.

I dont care much about this fandom but im sure ppl are mad not cuz of skin colour but no blond hair or grey eyes.

Everyone being hyper critical of her bc she’s black is insane

@@lyssanc Not because she is black but because Annabeth isnt. Its not about her skin colour its about her skin colour not being the same as Annabeths. The complaint is also not only for Leahs casting but also for blonde Percy. Leah has black skin and black hair and no grey eyes while Walkers hair and eyes are incorrect. Therefore the complaint about Leahs casting is bigger, because its even more different. But people dont love blonde people as they dont want a blonde Percy. They just want them to look like the characters they learned to love. This doesnt mean you cant love these kids but they will never fit perfectly into the role, no matter their personality. Even changing the hair colour wouldnt make it perfect but they dont even try to make it fit. And thats my problem. They dont care about the looks of the characters while the fans do. Characters are not only made up by well their character or better called personality but also by their looks, their age, their background etc. Personality alone is not enough

@@joelschittenhelm5571 personality alone is enough according to the author !

@@lyssanc And? Where is your Point? Is it the "He is the author so He knows best trope"? To that id awnser that he created the series yes, but He gave it into the hands of millions. You cant change what you have written before. Also He is Just that. An author. Not a filmmaker, Not a marketer, Not a person who normaly casts people for anything, not a Community manager. He is an author and a good one at that. But thats all

@@joelschittenhelm5571 we don’t own any of his characters. I’m a writer. He does know best. Everyone else just has opinions

Yess it will be perfect if she dry hair to blonde . Bc this hair color have a meaning in book . She look very very cute but have nothing like annabeth .

Cry more about diversity you pathetic piece of shit.

@@Auron1Roxas2Jump more to conclusions will you. This is Disney, they find other ways to ruin it as well

Shocker but every franchise endures as long as the original works are still there.

why? the books are amazing, and the show looks very promising so far!

It’s already been chopped my man. Nothing to lose from where it was 😂

Cause the actor is black

Потому что автор продал жопу. А Диснею нужна повестка 😐

Appearance matters less then acting

​@@Randomathenakidпоэтому вы воете и плачете, если чёрного персонажа играет белый актёр 😂 Или когда нет вообще чёрных актёров. Как же хорошо, что я живу в России и у нас нет всего этого мракобесного говна.

@@SwampKellpi I don’t really care what race an actor is

Appearance matters less then acting

And so what if the actor is African American there is a reason why they chose her

@@Randomathenakid they could've chosen someone who is book accurate. I'm not saying that her acting is bad but why change her appearance. There was a reason why Annabeth was a Caucasian blonde in the books. By making Annabeth African American, they have just changed the reason.

Then don’t watch the show? I’m sure no one will notice if you do.

@@viktoriebartosova3798 I assure you most pjo fans do not care and will watch it anyways lmao

@@viktoriebartosova3798 well I am

@@viktoriebartosova3798 there are millions of people in this fandom loosing a few is not a big deal. The author of the book accepted these changes so if the “fans” cannot accept that then that’s their fault. It’s not a big deal LMAOO he has millions.

In harry potter there are plenty of differences in the books to the films. harry has the wrong coloured eyes, they changed the actor of lavender brown multiple times throughout the movies - changing her race, the classic line ‘did you put your name in the goblet of fire’ was written to be said “calmly” and yet it’s yelled in the films, the character peeves just isn’t in the films, in the books percy weasley wears glasses but not in the films, this list goes on. As per your interpretation of ‘woke’ then harry defending species like house elves is woke, dumbledore is gay so the franchise is therefore woke, in the 5th film a resistance against authority is formed which would be woke, the main characters befriend and defend a werewolf character - werewolves would have been seen as monsters and of different class so for a human (‘normal class’) to be communing with such a ‘lower class’ would be woke. Again this list goes on. Woke isn’t a negative word, it’s a synonym for progression that many choose to view with negative context. Progression and inclusivity isn’t bad. Annabeths actor was chosen not based on looks but on acting ability, sure you could get a white blonde actor but they may have been much more shit at actually portraying/acting the role. As for the whole ‘Annabeth’s character fights the dumb blonde stereotype’ representation being ‘taken away’ - young blonde white girls see themselves in so many more roles then young black girls do. Let them have a bit of representation and relating connections to characters too lmao isn’t not the end of the world. I get it changes the character people grew up with but to a certain extent the important attributes of her character (like courageous and smart) are not changed at all. If it bothers you that much, don’t watch it lmao - simple as that!

it’s just because the actors were the best pick. they act just like them and fit the characters personality’s very well, so looks don’t really matter. it doesn’t play a huge role in the books, rather a minor detail.

Mate the books can't stick to their own description, nico changed race in the fourth one, blackjack changed genders, why is this only an issue when it comes to a tv show? The personalities were always the only thing that mattered, even in the books themselves.

@@nightofthelivingpenguin wait wait wait, when did Nico change race? i think he just got paler because he rarely came outside? and honestly idek the gender of blackjack. i’m assuming he’s male?

@@viktoriebartosova3798 not everything is for diversity, get it through your head. yes some companies do it for diversity, but rick specifically said he only casted her bc she was a good actress. nothing abt diversity.

@@viktoriebartosova3798 no it isn’t. but it’s awesome that you think anytime a black actor is playing a white character it’s just for inclusivity. good for you.

Facts

she’s had her social media accounts taken down multiple times because people keep threatening to lynch her and make her a slave. If you google her name it’s people saying slurs and saying she shouldn’t have gotten the job. So no, nobody really seems to be okay with her working the show.

shes gonna have blond braids

The difference is that white main characters are so common that it was pretty ridiculous that they couldn’t find a tan, curly-haired, blonde girl to play the role in the first movie. But black main characters are a lot less common, so to a handful of people, including Rick Riordan himself, that is satisfactory enough on its own to overlook the fact that book Annabeth is blonde. In this case, proper representation matters way more.

Rick has said on his blog post and i quote: "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, colour, 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." from this we can assume there were over ten thousand actors lined up for this role. Do you think that they would really just discount all the white actors for diversity?

The race swapping happened in the books themselves, Nico used to be olive skinned. Rick never cared about looks in the series.

Womp womp

i honestly quite like the actors. although they don’t look the same as the boo characters, they act a lot like them and are amazing actors.

@@wonderland_aeppI’m not denying their abilities or their personalities but that to me is like fan fiction when I want the legit real thing. I didn’t come for the fan adaptation of Percy Jackson where none of the characters look like how they’re described

@@ravenderose i understand that, but sometimes you can’t get exactly what you want. let’s atleast give it a try, it hasn’t even come out yet. you may end up liking it!

It's Anabeth clown, can't even get her name right but you wanna cry because she's "not blonde".

Hair dye and wigs love

@@manooo0nathey clearly haven’t done that though

@@heliotikis they picked actors based on vibes so if they can deliver a good interpretation of the characters we should be happy.

@@manooo0na We should be grateful for a TV Show at all but vibes? Seriously. It should be a combination with heavy emphasis on acting ability. Someone can have the complete opposite vibes of their character but still pull it off amazingly because they can act. That’s what the entire job is. And there’s no way they couldn’t find similar looking people with decent acting abilities in the entirety of their auditions. These all just feel like excuses so they can cop out on the accusations of diversity hires, which is what it feels like. Usually I can understand one or two race-swaps but the amount here is absurd. Possibly more than any Disney project I’ve seen. And when you’re adapting something based of Greek (White-European) culture, it’s very questionable.

Shut the fuck up you racist piece of shit. Annabeth is black now, deal with it.

who cares?

Idk what you’re talking about. Leah is Annabeth. She doenst have to be white to be Annabeth.

@@atp8108 your part of the problem bro just make a new character and if you want to be true to the book lol 😂 and if you don’t understand then I’m sorry your not all the bright because it’s real simple to understand

@@kingnate101 ... did you even read the books?