Unnecessary (int) cast of return value in SFEVL53L1X::getDistance()

[thuscoder]

uint16_t SFEVL53L1X::getDistance()
{
uint16_t distance;
_device->VL53L1X_GetDistance(&distance);
return (int)distance;
}

The function return type is uint16_t. Why is there an "(int)" cast in the return statement?