D23 Expo 2022 offered a first look at the highly anticipated Percy Jackson and the Olympians Disney+ series was today.
First announced in January, “Percy Jackson” is an adaptation of Rick Riordan’s popular young-adult fantasy book series, which consists of five books released from 2005 to 2009. The series was previously adapted into two feature films released in 2010 and 2013, with Logan Lerman in the title role.
As seen in the trailer above, the new series focuses on the titular 12-year-old boy (played by Adam Project’s Walker Scobell), who discovers that he is the son of Greek god Poseidon and begins training to become a hero at Camp Half-Blood, a special training camp for demigods.
In addition to Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri will star as Percy’s best friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood. Also appearing in the series in recurring are Virginia Kull as Percy’s mom Sally, Glynn Turman as mythological centaur Chiron, Jason Mantzoukas as Greek god of wine Dionysus, Megan Mullally as the Fury Alecto, Timm Sharp as Percy’s stepfather Gabe, Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse, daughter of the Greek god Ares, and Charlie Bushnell as Luke, son of the god Hermes. Shooting for the series began in Vancouver this June.
The Percy Jackson series are some of the best-selling books of all time, selling over 180 million copies worldwide. Its success led to two sequel series, The Heroes of Olympus and The Trials of Apollo, published between 2010 and 2020. In addition, Riordan is currently working on a sequel book with the writer Mark Oshiro.
According to author and executive producer Rick Riordan, the plan is to tackle one book per season.
“It’s going to be, hopefully, one season for every book, which gives us time to do justice to the entire story, as opposed to a movie where you have to make some cuts,” Riordan told TheWrap during D23 Expo on Saturday.
The first season will focus on “The Lightning Thief,” which is the first book in the series, Riordan said. That book and the second, “The Sea of Monsters,” have already been adapted into feature films, but the other three books remain untouched by any adaptations thus far.
At D23 the stars of the movie talked about how they felt about staring in the beloved franchise. “It’s a dream come true, but it’s a lot of pressure because I don’t want to let anyone down,” Scobell said. “At the same time, I don’t want to let myself down.”
“Taking on Annabeth was something I knew wasn’t going to be like anything else,” Jeffries said. “She’s wise. Her nickname from [Percy] is ‘Wise Girl.’ I find it incredible playing her. I know there’s a lot of huge fans of Annabeth Chase out there and I want to satisfy them with all that I have.”
While Simhadri loved the growth of Grover, “Just seeing him grow throughout the series, he’s so cool. He becomes the God of the Wild — that’s so sick! It’s kind of surreal that I get to be that guy,” he said.
The television series is produced by Disney’s 20th Television. Riordan co-wrote the pilot of the series with Jon Steinberg, while James Bobin directs.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians has not been announced.
