Some controversy over the casting of the main female lead being a black girl. Glad they went age appropriate for this show but if they wanted to race bend a character, I would have preferred it be one that isn't so iconically blond in the books.

The kid from the Adam Project is a great choice for Percy

The young actress can still have blonde hair, although I don't think the author (Rick Riordan) is too concerned about physical appearances here (beyond being age-appropriate) since he's come out saying they haven't discussed having the young man cast as Percy dying his hair black like in the books. Definitely seems that the performances of the actors and chemistry between them took top priority.

Given how involved Riordan is with this project, including the direct casting of the main three characters, I think people are overreacting (surprise) before even seeing how they portray their characters first.

Sort of reminds me of when Dan Radcliffe didn't have Harry Potter's (his mother's) green eyes and how fans were vocal about that. There wasn't any social media then, but it would have blew up online if it existed.

Grover is cast as Indian which is fine since his ethnicity is barely if ever stated. There is far more evidence that Hermione is black in Harry Potter than Annabeth is black in Percy Jackson

Personally, as a fan of Percy Jackson, I'm not really that worried / annoyed by any of the casting. If it was just the studio's decision (like with the movies...), perhaps, but Riordan personally chose them. I believe everyone else besides the trio was handled by casting agencies, but casting the trio was important for Riordan.

If one (or more) of them doesn't match the book's description, then he had a reason (or reasons) to not cast someone who fit his own description. Perhaps those among the reported 10,000+ who auditioned for Annabeth that matched her book description just weren't very impressive in their auditions and/or had little chemistry with the others. Casting an actor with appearance as top priority can be more damaging to an adaptation than someone who is just a better actor for the role and/or gets along better with the rest of the cast.

The directors of the first three episodes are also pretty impressive names. I don't think fans, or even just anyone interested in watching the show, should be worried much about it at this time. Having the author directly involved in casting and as producer doesn't necessarily mean it'll be great, but it shows he's wanting to get it right this time. There appears to be a strong effort here in producing a quality series/adaptation.

I'm sure I'll still like the show. I'm a defender of the black ariel casting as well. Won't judge it finally till I see them in the show

The black Ariel actress is so obviously born to play a Disney character. I think losing the red hair is probably the bigger downside.

I knew there was some backlash/hate over Annabeth's casting, but I didn't know it escalated to hate/bullying against the 12-year-old girl herself on social media... What's wrong with people?

Rick came out pretty hard against all this today.

Never would have guessed Edge would be in this!



“I knew Adam was our Ares as soon as I saw his audition tape. He absolutely nailed it. This guy IS Ares the way I imagined him in the Percy Jackson series. He obviously knew the part, loved it, and was having WAY too much fun being the god of war.”

-Rick

That's excellent casting.

I don't know who that is

Which Altar Bridge song will Ares use as his theme music?

He's had a few acting roles outside of WWE, too. Most notably, I think, was in two or three seasons on Vikings.

Ares rides a motorcycle here, so they could, if they really wanted to, include a small sample of Metalingus or maybe Rob Zombie's Never Gonna Stop and have it fit the character.

It's also funny that Ares often uses a spear and Edge (Adam) uses it as his finishing move.

Lin Manuel Miranda has been cast as Hermes

Funny reaction from the fandom with LMM as Hermes. He's not in the first book, but it can certainly be a good addition to add him to Season 1 of the show prior to Sea of Monsters.

Hephaestus and Hades have also been cast recently:

Also, them holding off on Poseidon is interesting. I can't tell if the fans *really* want Logan Lerman in the role or if they're just wanting him included in some way. Personally, I'd be fine with it, though might prefer some cameo instead.

I am pretty sure they are filming the Sea of Monsters either as part of season 1 or for quick production after season 1 wraps. The kids will get too old if they wait

This is apparently 8 episodes and only covers the first book. No idea how they'll stretch it out that long unless the episodes are like 22 minutes. Definitely could have done the first 2 books in 8 episodes

The first 2 episodes were good but I don’t know why so little dialogue from the books was used. So little of the books humor transferred over.

Overall it felt a little soulless. The production design was good though

The actors for Gabe and Clarissa are NOTHING like the book and make Annabeth look super well cast. Even the guy playing Dionysus is not nearly enough of a dick.

Loved the first two episodes. I was worried reviews were too good to be true, but it's met expectations so far.

It's briskly paced, has followed the book very closely, and the cast is pretty good. Obviously many aren't as described in the book in physical appearance, but I'm cool with it as everyone is good so far. Much rather have good actors over trying to find people to check off a books description. Maybe it'd be more of an issue if the filmmakers did it themselves, but since the author made the decisions himself, co-wrote the screenplay, and is an executive producer, it's good.

Bear McCreary's score is good. The main theme sounds similar to Marvel, but he only worked on Agents of SHIELD, so I don't know if I'm hearing pieces of it from there or if it's just similar enough to Marvel that makes me think of it. Either way, it and the other pieces are good so far.

Visuals are nice. Chiron's movements look a bit off at times but otherwise everything else is solid. Camp Half-Blood looks good too.

I do hope some of the others at camp get introduced. I could have sworn I read they were somewhere, so hoping they are next episode since that's the last chance I'd think (this season anyway).