‘Percy Jackson’ Disney+ Series Casts Aryan Simhadri as Grover, Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth (EXCLUSIVE)

EXCLUSIVE: Phil Abraham has been tapped to direct and executive produce the pilot episode of Netflix’s untitled spy adventure series that will star Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first major foray into scripted television.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterNeve Campbell has joined the “Twisted Metal” series adaptation at Peacock.Campbell joins previously announced cast members Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, and Thomas Haden Church in the series version of the Playstation video game franchise.More to come…

Joe Otterson TV ReporterMatt Shakman has come onboard the live-action Godzilla series at Apple from Legendary Television, Variety has learned exclusively.The show was ordered at Apple back in January. Shakman will direct the first two episodes and serve as an executive producer on the series. The untitled series continues the story of the Legendary Monsterverse established in films like “Kong: Skull Island” and 2014’s “Godzilla.”Shakman most recently directed all of the Disney+ Marvel series “WandaVision” in addition to executive producing.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe “Twisted Metal” series at Peacock has cast Thomas Haden Church.Church will star opposite previously announced series leads Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz. The show is described as a half-hour action comedy based on the Playstation video games of the same name.In the show, a motor-mouthed outsider (Mackie) is offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Amazon Prime Video’s Reacher will see a familiar face as Maria Sten returns for the action series’ second season.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterThe “Washington Black” series at Hulu has cast Billy Boyd, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, and Julian Rhind-Tutt in recurring roles, Variety has learned exclusively.“Washington Black” is adapted from Esi Edugyan’s novel of the same name. The nine-episode series is set in the 19th century and follows Washington “Wash” Black (Ernest Kingsley Jr.) as he flees from a Barbados sugar plantation after a shocking death threatens to upend his life. He becomes the protégé of Medwin Harris (Sterling K.

Jason Momoa is back in the gym!

 franchise that racism will never be tolerated. On Tuesday, the writer published a blog post condemning the racist backlash against Leah Sava Jeffries, the 12-year-old actress cast to play Annabeth Chase in the upcoming Disney+ series, . «If you have a problem with this casting, however, take it up with me. You have no one else to blame,» the author wrote. «We should be able to agree that bullying and harassing a child online is inexcusably wrong.

Tamara Podemski, currently starring in Josh Brolin’s neo-Western series “Outer Range,” has been cast as a recurring character in Season 2 of FX’s “Reservation Dogs.”Podemski, one of the most well-known Indigenous actors in both Canada and the U.S., will play the aunt of Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) in three pivotal episodes of the show’s sophomore run. Podemski will also be reunited with Sterlin Harjo, co-creator and executive producer on “Reservation Dogs.” Harjo’s directorial debut, “Four Sheets to the Wind,” starred Podemski in a leading role. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.Currently, Podemski plays Deputy Sheriff Joy on “Outer Range.” Last month, Podemski spoke to Variety about Indigenous representation in the Western genre, saying that the traditional Western “does not include Indigenous ideas and truths.” “It served a function of conquering the West.

Alexandra Daddario is speaking out about the backlash to Leah Sava Jeffries taking over the role of Annabeth Chase in Disney+’s upcoming Percy Jackson series.

Actress Alexandra Daddario has chimed in on the backlash against Leah Jeffries casting as Annabeth Chase in the upcoming Disney+ show Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Daddario previously played Annabeth Chase in two Percy Jackson films The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters. 

Last week, Disney+ announced its lead cast for “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, the upcoming series based on Rick Riordan’s popular “Percy Jackson” book series.

Rick Riordan, author of the popular YA adventure novel series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, is speaking out amid backlash in casting one of his characters in Disney+’s upcoming series adaptation.

Zack Sharf “Percy Jackson” author Rick Riordan published a blog post May 10 condemning the racist backlash against Leah Jeffries, the young actor who is set to play Annabeth Chase in the upcoming Disney+ series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” Variety exclusively reported Jeffries’ casting on May 5. The actor will star in the show opposite Walker Scobell as Percy and Aryan Simhadri as Grover. Some “Percy Jackson” fans have expressed outrage online over Jeffries playing Annabeth because the Black actor does not match the skin color of the character as originally written in Riordan’s novels.“This post is specifically for those who have a problem with the casting of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase,” Riordan writes.

EXCLUSIVE: James DuMont (The Righteous Gemstones), Christopher James Baker (Ozark), Manny Galan (City on a Hill), Juvian Marquez (Power Book II: Ghost) and Anirudh Pisharody (9-1-1) will round out the cast of the thriller Unit 234, from director Andy Tennant, which is currently in production in the Cayman Islands. The quintet will star alongside previously announced cast members including Isabelle Fuhrman, Don Johnson and Jack Huston.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter“The Last Thing He Told Me” series adaptation at Apple has added three new cast members, Variety has learned exclusively.Geoff Stults (“Little Fires Everywhere,” “Guilty Party”), John Harlan Kim (“LA Law,” “9-1-1”), and Augusto Aguilera (“Made for Love,” “Promised Land”) will all appear in the series. Jennifer Garner will star along with previously announced cast members including Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Angourie Rice, and Aisha Tyler.The series is based on the Laura Dave novel of the same name. The show follows Hannah (Garner), a woman who forms an unexpected relationship with her sixteen-year-old stepdaughter Bailey (Rice) while searching for the truth about why her husband Owen (Coster-Waldau) has mysteriously disappeared.