Percy Jackson & the Olympians/Trivia

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• Ability Over Appearance: In the Disney+ series, Percy, Annabeth, Luke, Clarisse, Chiron, Zeus among others are all played by actors who bear little resemblance to their book counterparts. Most of this fault goes to Rick Riordan, who personally handpicked the actors themselves. In his own words:

Personally, I think this is a non-issue. For me, finding the right actors has never been about hair color, eye color, skin color, or any other single physical trait, even if they were described a certain way in the books. As many of you know, I flubbed such details myself several times in the series. Thalia’s eyes changed from green to blue. Oops! Annabeth’s hair was curly and then it was straight. Nico was described as olive-skinned, then later as pale. Blackjack even changed from a mare to a stallion over the course of two books. Whelp, not sure what happened there, but too late now! If I may invoke the Movies That Shall Not Be Watched, I know a lot of you cared deeply and were unhappy when Annabeth turned out to be a brunette rather than blonde, but for me, that was never the main issue. What mattered were that those actors, as talented and wonderful as they are, were WAY too old for the parts as I wrote them, and their age was central to the plot. What I want to see are age-appropriate actors who can embody the personalities of the characters, nail their voices and their sense of humor, and make you believe: “Yes, that is Percy. That is Grover. That is Annabeth,” even if they’re not exactly how the characters were described physically in the books. Again, that’s just my personal opinion and my approach. So blond Percy? Hey, why not? IMO Walker is awesome just as he is. He is perfect for the role. The same will be true for our other characters when I can announce them.

Unfortunately, this decision struck a nerve with many fans who expected the actors playing the characters to resemble their book counterparts to a T, especially those who raged war over Annabeth being portrayed by African-American actress Leah Savah Jefferies.

• The Wiki Rule: The aptly named Riordan Wiki

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