Hunger Games fans get racist about the casting of the sequel

In the book, the new character of Finnick Odair is described as being "tall, muscular, and athletic, with tan skin, bronze-coloured hair and incredible sea-green eyes".

A Hunger Games fan set up Tumblr and Twitter pages titled "Jesse for Finnick" in a campaign to get Grey's Anatomy heartthrob Jesse Williams the part. And so the fan forums and blogosphere ignited with a barrage of racist comments, like this one:

"I'm sorry but unless I read the wrong book, isn't Finnick Caucasian? By tanned skin Collins meant his skin was darkened from the sun (swimming/fishing) not that he is of a darker skin ethnicity... Don't get me wrong, this guy is great just completely wrong for this role."

Other commenters suggest white actors Robert Pattinson, Garrett Hedlund, Ian Somerhalder, Chace Crawford and Taylor Kitsch should get the part.

A Tumblr user's comments and another fan's response.

But the racist outcry has only galvanised a large number of Hunger Games speaking out in favour of Jesse.

"Dear Racist Hunger Games Tweeters: We're throwing you more logical issues you can't deal with. The interwebs have decided to campaign for Jesse Williams to play Finnick Odair in Catching Fire, the second HG film," wrote one fan.

As for Jesse himself, well, he told E! he "didn't know what the heck a Finnick was" but has "since been educated".

"People are creative about that kind of stuff, and now I'll try to figure out if that's something that's interesting to me," Jesse said.