‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’: Everything We Know!

Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is possibly one of their most anticipated shows to date, with Percy Jackson fans hanging onto every announcement. However, in case you missed some things and want to join in on the hype, here’s everything we know about the series so far.

As early as May 2020, Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series and it’s spin-offs Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo, mentioned talks of a Percy Jackson TV show on his website. December 2020, it became official when Riordan put out a teaser on TikTok saying it was to appear at the “Disney shareholders meeting.” In January 2022, Riordan confirmed the series was being made with an announcement through Disney+, announcing that he and his wife will be executive producers on the project, and than Riordan and Jon Steinberg would co-write the pilot. With this announcement, fans were ecstatic! Having been burned in the past with lack-luster movies that didn’t quite capture the charm of the books, Percy Jackson fans were happy to hear the series was getting another chance at an adaptation. So, for all the excited fans, here’s everything we know so far.

The Casting Process

In April 2021, Riordan took to his website to announce a preliminary casting call for the role of Percy Jackson, the main character of the series. They wanted to cast someone who could “play 12,” that way the character of Percy could grow with the show, from 12 years old to 16, so age-accurate casting was important to them. Riordan also specified ethnicity was not a part of the casting process, they simply wanted to cast the person who could embody Percy Jackson. It was later revealed that this was the stance they took for casting every role, that race and ethnicity would not play into their decision-making, but rather the actor’s ability to embody their role. So, with that in mind, let’s see who they’ve cast…

The Cast

In April 2022, Disney+ announced that Walker Scobell (The Adam Project) would be playing Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon himself. A month later in May 2022, Disney+ announced the other two members of the main trio, Leah Sava Jeffries (Beast) to play Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and Aryan Simhadri (Cheaper By The Dozen) to play everyone’s favorite satyr, Grover Underwood. Rick Riordan emphasized on his website how perfect he felt their casting choices were, saying Walker was the “perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark, and heroism to embody our hero Percy Jackson.” He also said Leah was his “number one choice for Annabeth,” and how Aryan “won our hearts.”

The next set of casting news was announced in June 2022, revealing many of the adults to be featured in the series. Virgina Kull (The Big Bend) will play Percy’s mother, Sally Jackson, and Timm Sharp (Blunt Talk) will play Gabe Ugliano, Percy’s slimy stepfather. Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) will star as Alecto, or Mrs. Dodds, Percy’s evil pre-algebra teacher. Jason Mantzoukas (Big Mouth) is set to play Mr. D, or the God of wine and festivity, Dionysus, and Glynn Turman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) will play Chiron, or Mr. Brunner, Percy’s centaur Latin teacher turned Camp Half-Blood trainer.

With that exciting news, other demigods were then announced that same month. It was announced that Charlie Bushnell (Diary of a Future President) would be playing Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, Dior Goodjohn (Are You Afraid of the Dark?) would be playing Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, and Olivea Morton (And Yet They Speak) would be playing Nancy Bobofit, Percy’s detestable classmate.

In news of Gods and monsters, in October 2022 we got some more cast announcements. WWE star Adam Copeland or “Edge” (Vikings) will star as Ares, the God of war and courage. Suzanne Cryer (Silicon Valley) will play Echidna, the mother of all monsters. Jessica Parker Kennedy (The Flash) will star as Medusa, the gorgon who can turn anyone into stone.

The most recent development in casting is the casting of Hermes, messenger God of travel, thieves, and diplomacy, which was announced in November 2022 to be Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton)! Though that’s all we have so far, that’s a heck of a lot to learn in just a year.

The Adaptation of the Books

Considering Rick Riordan’s close involvement with the TV series, it’s easy to assume the adaptation from book to screen will remain as loyal to the books as possible. Riordan explained to TheWrap at the D23 convention how the series will hopefully adapt a book per season, so the first season will adapt The Lightning Thief, the second season will adapt The Sea of Monsters, the third season will adapt The Titan’s Curse, and so on. He says this will give them time to “do justice to the entire story.” This, Riordan’s involvement and the age-accurate casting of demigods tell us that this will be a far more loyal adaptation of the books than what we’ve seen in the past, specifically with the brief movie series, which aged up the characters and changed the narrative of the series dramatically. This is exciting for fans who liked the movies and were sad the movie series was canceled, and fans who didn’t like the series and wished it was a more faithful adaptation.

Production

Production on Percy Jackson and the Olympians began in June 2022 in Vancouver, and as of October 2022, they have finished filming half of the first season. Rick Riordan estimates that editing will begin in early 2023.

Teaser

In September 2022, Disney+ released a teaser trailer for the series, in which Walker gives the famous monologue about how Percy “didn’t want to be a Half-Blood.” Watch it here

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Release Date

We don’t know much about the release date as of writing this article, but we do know the show will not be available for streaming until 2024 on Disney+, Riordan hinting at early 2024 to be exact. Keep your eyes open!

What Fans Want To See

With all that was officially announced listed off, let’s jump into what fans want to see. To start with, while Percy Jackson fans weren’t super thrilled about the movies, they did love Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson. One of the biggest things fans are hoping for is that Logan Lerman will return as Poseidon, the God of the sea and Percy’s father. While Rick Riordan has stated that no cross-over casting will be done between the movie cast and the TV show cast… fans are hoping he’s lying to save the surprise.

Fans also wish to see more LGBTQ+ representation in the show. While Nico Di Angelo (SPOILER ALERT) is canonically gay and Piper McLean (SPOILER ALERT) is canonically bisexual, we don’t find this out until the spin-off series’. The Percy Jackson series itself could have more representation, and many people want to see this with either Clarisse coming out as gay or bisexual, Percy coming out as bisexual, or even Thalia (who we will not see until seasons 2 and 3 of the show) being confirmed as bisexual and/or asexual. It’d be interesting to see, and fans certainly want to see it.

For more updates on the Percy Jackson series, make sure to follow @percyseries and Rick Riordan on Instagram, and check out Riordan’s website as well.