‘It’s something that we were well aware would be an issue’: Disney’s hotly-hyped fantasy reboot tragically admits racist backlash was inevitable

There are many reasons why we can’t have nice things, and just one of them is any sort of recognizable property coming in for racist backlash if it doesn’t strictly adhere to the character descriptions laid out in the source material. Disney has discovered that twice over recently, with Percy Jackson and the Olympians following hot on the heels of The Little Mermaid.

First it was Halle Bailey being cast as Ariel, a decision that some people found unconscionable even though we’re talking about an underwater creature of myth and legend, while in the case of the latter it’s Leah Jeffries being hired to play Annabeth Chase. Alexandra Daddario came under fire over a decade ago when she landed the role for being brunette, so you can only imagine the vitriol her 14 year-old successor had to contend with.

In a damning indictment of where things are at, though, creator Rick Riordan admitted to Variety that he knew it was going to happen, admitting that while “it’s something that we were well aware would be an issue as soon as we knew that she was the one,” he made it a priority among the younger cast members “to protect them, to foster their education and to do everything I can to be a mentor and, hopefully, even a friend to them.”

On the plus side, while Jeffries did reveal that “it got to me for the quickest second – literally, like 90 seconds,” she’s confident enough to know that “no matter how many people are going to say bad things, it’s never going to be true.” As the young actress says, clearly wise beyond her years; “It’s just a show.”