Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians finds a home at Disney+ this December with a wildly fun first season guaranteed to make fans happy and convert a new audience. Rick Riordan got the ball rolling on a new adaptation for his beloved series in 2019, and four years later, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the adventure we’ve all been waiting for. And why was it worth the wait? For executive producers Dan Shotz and Jon Steinberg, the answer is simple: “Because Rick said so.”
Everybody on set were already huge fans of Percy Jackson. “I always wanted to be a part of Percy Jackson,” said Walker Scobell, who plays Percy. Scobell, who is only 14 and made his impressive debut in The Adam Project opposite of Ryan Reynolds, has been a fan since the third grade. “For Christmas, I asked for a Percy Jackson Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. I still have it. I wore it on the Zoom call where Rick told me I got the part.”
Scobell is joined by Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri who play Annabeth and Grover, respectively. Though this trio ranges from ages 14-17, they each have the professionalism of someone who’s been in the business for decades.
Even when confronted with the racist backlash against her casting—something nobody of any color or age should experience—Jeffries remains positive and is thriving. She said it only bothered her for about ten seconds because she had a job to do. “You’re playing the character; you’re not playing the appearance. If you’re playing the appearance, then you’re just being a stand-in.” These are very wise words from the wise girl herself. It’s also worth noting that Jeffries plans on winning an EGOT—an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony—while also becoming a neurosurgeon. And honestly? She probably could; she’s already succeeding as an actress.
“It was among the most professional experiences we ever had with a cast or crew,” Steinberg shared. “Nothing was written down to kid performers or a kid audience. And those kids showed up everyday and not just hit it out of the park but did it with a smile. It was among the most professional experiences we ever had with a cast or crew.”
Steinberg shared the role Rick and Becky Riordan had on the show. “From the beginning, there was a commitment that there wasn’t gonna be anything that would happen to the show that wouldn’t make them feel excited about revisiting the material and delivering it to existing fans in a new way and delivering it to a new audience.”
“We got really fortunate that when we first signed on to this four years ago with Rick and Becky it was during COVID, and we got to sit in this little bubble and just talk about everything that Rick and his family have gone through in the 20 years since he wrote the first book,” Shotz said. “Getting to understand the depth, how personal this was, was just crucial all the way through. And them being on set all the time, getting to watch it through their eyes a little bit where they’re seeing a thing that came out of his brain come to life in this way and you can see him cherishing it. Yeah, he was a part of it through every decision as we went through the whole thing, and I think it had to be that way.”
“You don’t come across something this universal and this much fun that often,” Steinberg said.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians begins streaming on Disney+ on December 20.
