What all the Percy Jackson fans have been waiting for: the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show is finally here! Well, sort of. Disney has finally announced an official release date for the long-awaited TV adaptation of Rick Riordan’s best-selling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
After an attempt at a film adaptation in the early 2010s that was largely seen as disastrous to anyone who had read the books, fans have been understandably anxious about the upcoming TV show. But with a lot of author involvement from Riordan this time around, and trailers coming out as we gear up for the release, it's looking pretty promising. Riordan has been updating fans on his website: rickriordan.com, since the beginning. It is a lot of content to go through, but as an avid lover of Percy Jackson, and someone with arguably too much time on her hands, I’ve been keeping up with the updates for a while now. To save you the trouble of going through all of these updates, I'll break it down here.
While the idea of a show has been in the works for years, Disney actually only gave it the green light in late January of 2021. Since then, Riordan, various writers, producers, actors, and many others have done a lot of work to make sure the show is as accurate to the books as possible. According to Riordan, the writer’s room is filled with PJO fans who are confident they can tell the story accurately while still hiding some easter eggs and nuances to keep the show exciting for people who know the books inside and out.
As for casting, that’s been a bit more of an adventure. Much like the Harry Potter movies, the main trio of Annabeth, Percy, and Grover were cast first to make sure the chemistry would be right with everyone that came after. The first casting choice to be announced was Walker Scoville as Percy Jackson in April of 2022. Walker is apparently a very talented actor who happens to be a huge Percy Jackson fan. According to Riordan, his personality is perfect for the role, with just the right mixture of humor, snarkiness, and sweetness. The main question around this casting choice was if Walker would be dying his dirty blond hair black like Percy is described to have in the books. Riordan responded to this by saying, "For me, finding the right actors has never been about hair color, eye color, skin color, or any other single physical trait, even if they were described a certain way in the books…What I want to see are age-appropriate actors who can embody the personalities of the characters, nail their voices and their sense of humor, and make you believe: 'Yes, that is Percy. That is Grover. That is Annabeth,' even if they’re not exactly how the characters were described physically in the books.” (What a Week!, April 16, 2022).
This approach was definitely seen in the next casting decisions announced: Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood. While Grover doesn’t receive a lot of physical description in the books that isn’t centered around his goat legs, Annabeth is specifically described as tan, with blonde hair and gray eyes. Some fans were upset with the decision to cast a black actor to play Annabeth, but overall people have made peace with the choice, especially if it means the personalities will play out well on TV. Both of these actors are veterans who have starred in numerous other roles and are going to do a great job bringing our favorite characters to life!
The next casting decisions announced were for the adult characters that will show up in the first few episodes of this upcoming TV show. Virginia Kull was cast as Sally Jackson, Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus/Mr. D, Megan Mullally as Mrs. Dodds (aka. Alecto, one of the Furies), Glynn Turman as Chiron, and Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano. These were announced on June 2, 2022, which also happened to be the first day of filming. There were a lot of other important casting choices, including the gods, that came out over a period of many months as production slowly moved from one episode to the next. Rather than separating the rest of these by when they were released, here’s a list of everything that came after June 2, 2022: Olivea Morton as Nancy Bobofit, Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse LaRue, Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan, Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, Suzanne Cryer as Echidna, Adam Copeland as Ares, Lin Manuel Miranda as Hermes, Jay Duplass as Hades, Timothy Omundson as Hephaestus, Lance Reddick as Zeus, and Toby Stephens as Poseidon.
As for what comes next, Disney has released a couple of things in the past few months. In August, a full-length trailer was released that, in my opinion, looks amazing. In September, Disney finally gave us the update we’d all been waiting for: a release date and release schedule for the eight episodes of the first season, which is set to cover the plot of the first book, The Lightning Thief. The first two episodes will premier on Disney+ on December 20, followed by new episodes each week. Beyond that, we don’t know a lot. Season two is already in the works in the writer’s room, but Disney hasn’t officially given it the green light yet, and even if they do, the second season will still be a long way off. If season 2 does play out, it seems worth mentioning that unfortunately, Lance Reddick will not be playing Zeus as he tragically passed away in March of this year. Either way, it’s super exciting to see how well this show is coming together. I’m hopeful it will live up to and exceed expectations. Until then, I have to get started on rereading those books, so happy fall, Demigods!