Rick Riordan, the creator of the favored and beloved Percy Jackson ebook collection, took to Twitter to hit again at critics upset with the actor solid to play the character Annabeth Chase within the upcoming Disney+ adaptation of his work.

Disney introduced Thursday that 12-year-old Leah Jeffries was solid as Annabeth, one of many primary leads of the collection, and an in depth pal to the title character, Percy Jackson. Whereas, as Riordan famous in a Tuesday weblog put up, her casting was met with a largely optimistic response, it additionally drew backlash from some on-line as a result of a Black actor was chosen to play a personality who up to now has been portrayed as white.

"You might be judging her appropriateness for this position solely and completely on how she seems," Riordan wrote. "She is a Black woman enjoying somebody who was described within the books as white. Pals, that's racism."

Riordan additionally stated that the manufacturing of the forthcoming Disney+ collection, which he has been actively concerned in, was dedicated to assembling a various solid. He described the method as "lengthy, intense, large and exhaustive," and insisted that the actors chosen for the primary roles have been those that greatest match the characters.

percy jackson rick riordan leah jeffries
"Percy Jackson" creator Rick Riordan has responded to critics who took concern with the casting of Leah Jeffries within the collection forthcoming Disney+ adaptation. Above, a photograph of Jeffries from 2016.Monica Morgan/WireImage

Alongside Jeffries, Walker Scobell, 13, who not too long ago performed a younger Ryan Reynolds in Netflix's The Adam Mission, was solid in the primary position of Percy Jackson. Aryan Simhadri, 16, was additionally solid as one other of the primary characters, Grover Underwood.

"I've been clear, because the creator, that I used to be searching for the perfect actors to inhabit and convey to life the personalities of those characters, and that bodily look was secondary for me," Riordan wrote. "We did that. We took a 12 months to do that course of totally and discover the perfect of the perfect. This trio is the perfect. Leah Jeffries is Annabeth Chase."

Newsweek reached out to Disney for remark.

The five-book Percy Jackson & the Olympians collection, printed between 2005 and 2009, follows the adventures of varied "demigods," the half-human youngsters of the Greek gods, as they attend a secret summer time camp referred to as Camp Half-Blood. Jeffries' character Annabeth Chase is the daughter of Athena.

The success of the preliminary collection spawned quite a few follow-ups from Riordan, together with sequel collection, The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo, and spin-offs, The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase, which discover Egyptian and Norse mythology, respectively. The books have bought over 180 million copies as of January 2022.

Replace 5/10/2022 at 5:10 p.m. EDT: This Story has been up to date to incorporate extra background data and feedback from Riordan.