Fancasting Legend characters

I’ve heard that there has been some bickering among Legend fans about the fancasts of the characters–mostly, that some choose to cast Caucasian actors and some choose to cast PoC actors, and that I originally envisioned Metias to look something like Ben Barnes, who is clearly Caucasian, even though Metias and June are technically of mixed race.

This is a valid complaint. All of the arguments are valid. The thing is, I have never been good at casting my characters. I sketch them out in an attempt to know what they look like, but it’s so very particular that casting is always difficult for me. It’s entirely possible that I am envisioning Metias to be way whiter than he should be. The Iparis siblings are a melting pot of ethnicities–in my notes, I wrote them down as being of Hispanic, Native American, and White heritage (based on populations that live in Southern California). I’ve envisioned June as everyone from Hailee Steinfeld to a young Morena Baccarin to a young Priyanka Chopra. I think she would fit any of these. I also admit that I did originally write Metias while picturing Ben Barnes in my head.

There are Legend characters who are very obviously PoC in appearance–Pascao and Razor, for example, are both clearly African-American to me, and Kaede is 100% Japanese. Day looks very hapa in my head. But I don’t want to dictate fancasts for anyone, especially for the characters who are more nebulous (June, Metias, Anden, etc). People of mixed race exist on a huge spectrum of appearance. I’m not saying that whitewashing isn’t an enormous Hollywood problem that I constantly rail against (don’t even get me started on Akira or Avatar: The Last Airbender), but sometimes…..it’s a tough call. Be kind and patient to others in the fandom, and know that it is absolutely okay to criticize me as the creator. Just because I’m an author of color doesn’t mean I always make the right decisions or envision the right people or say the right thing. I am as capable of making mistakes as a Caucasian author, and I’m glad when people call me out for it. I’m trying to grow with each book I write, and that includes the amount of care and thought I should be putting into each of my characters’ heritages and identities. I’m trying to do better each time.

I hope this is helpful! I don’t want to intrude too much into your conversations, guys–I want you guys to make the world your own, in the way that matters to you, and I want to keep building characters that resonate with you. Okay, signing out. Hugs. <3