Percy Jackson

Disney+ announced on Tuesday that Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri will play lead characters Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood.

The poorly reviewed first film iteration of “Percy Jackson” featured actors in their 20s and notoriously veered from the original plotline. Simhadri hails from Riverside, California, and was recently a lead in “Spin,” the first Disney Channel original movie about an Indian American family. Disney+'s new show is based on a series of five young adult novels written by Rick Riordan between 2005 and 2009.

"Leah Sava Jeffries being cast as Annabeth Chase means so much to me and will mean so much to future generations of little Black girls."

In response to the casting choices, Percy Jackson fans were elated. Earlier this year in a video announcement shared by Disney+, Riordan confirmed that Percy Jackson And The Olympians was being turned into a TV series. Of course, with any book-to-show adaptation, people began to wonder who would be joining the cast.

Disney+'s 'Percy Jackson' series has cast Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri in lead roles opposite title star Walker Scobell.

Ordered to series in January, Percy Jackson and the Olympians follows the title character (Scobell), a 12-year-old demigod who is just coming to terms with his newfound powers when the sky god, Zeus, accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. She trains Percy to survive the mythological world, while he becomes her guide to connect with humanity. He cares deeply about others and will put their needs before his own, sometimes at his peril.

Percy Jackson has found his fellow heroes. Aryan Simhadri (Disney's Spin) and Leah Sava Jeffries (Empire) have been tapped to star alongside Walker Scobell ...

Steinberg will oversee the series with his producing partner Dan Shotz. Steinberg and Shotz serve as executive producers alongside Bobin, Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson and The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg. Based on Rick Riordan’s best-selling book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson (Scobell), who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Simhadri’s Grover Underwood is satyr, half boy and half goat, disguised as a 12-year-old boy.

Leah Sava Jeffries will play Annabeth and Aryan Simhadri will play Grover alongside Walker Scobell's Percy in the upcoming Disney+ adaptation.

In her case, she's the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, and as such is a brilliant strategist and clever thinker. Rick Riordan's beloved Percy Jackson and the Olympians series has many characters, ranging from the ancient Greek gods of Olympus to their many half-blood children. Like Percy, Annabeth is the "half-blood" child of a god.

Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri join Walker Scobell in the upcoming Disney+ series.

Steinberg oversees the series with producing partner Dan Shotz. Steinberg and Shotz also serve as executive producers alongside Bobin, Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson, and The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg. You can get updates from the Disney+ series @PercySeries. The account’s first tweet was the photo of the main trio. Percy Jackson and the Olympians has cast Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood in the upcoming Disney+ series, the streaming service announced May 5. “With help from his friends Grover and Annabeth, Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus.” To say fans were eager to know who would play Annabeth and Grover following Scobell’s casting in April is an understatement. And after having spent five years at Camp Half-Blood (where teen demigods train and bond), she longs to test her mettle in the human world, which she barely remembers.

The new Disney Plus adaptation of Percy Jackson is now full steam ahead, and it has now added two young actors to play Percy's friends, Grover and Annabeth.

Who is Percy Jackson? Percy Jackson is a smart and compassionate kid with a sharp sense of humour, who has always seen himself as an outsider, partly because of how the world sees his ADHD and dyslexia. Where have I seen Leah Sava Jeffries before? He cares deeply about others and will always choose what is best for them, sometimes at his own expense.