Percy Jackson and the Olympians (TV series)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is an American fantasy television series created by Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg for Disney+, based on the book series of the same name by Riordan. Walker Scobell stars as Percy Jackson, alongside Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood.

Development on the series began in May 2020, following a pitch by Riordan to Disney Branded Television. Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz were announced as showrunners in July 2021, with James Bobin hired to direct the first episode in October. Scobell was cast in the lead role in January 2022, with Jeffries and Simhadri joining the cast in May. By September, Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson were also set to direct multiple episodes of the series. Filming began in June 2022 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and concluded in February 2023, with additional cast members revealed throughout 2022 and 2023.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiered on December 19, 2023, on Disney+, with the first season consisting of eight episodes. It has received positive reviews from critics, who largely praised its faithfulness to the source material, worldbuilding, and cast performances, particularly Scobell's. The series was renewed for a second season in February 2024, which will adapt the second book of the series, The Sea of Monsters.

Premise
Twelve-year-old demigod Percy Jackson is accused by the Greek god Zeus of stealing his thunderbolt and races to find it and restore order to Olympus.

Main

 * Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, a young demigod and son of Poseidon
 * Azriel Dalman portrays a younger Percy
 * Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena who has been training at Camp Half-Blood for five years
 * Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood, Percy's best friend and a satyr disguised through magic as a twelve-year-old boy

Recurring

 * Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Percy's selfless mother
 * Glynn Turman as Chiron / Mr. Brunner, a centaur disguised as Percy's Latin teacher. While the character only pretends to be disabled to disguise himself among humans by using a magical wheelchair, the character has a disability in the form of a brace in his hind left leg as a war injury. The creators made this change to address disability, though they noted it would be "just a detail" during the first season
 * Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus / Mr. D, the god of wine and curmudgeonly director of Camp Half-Blood
 * Megan Mullally as Alecto / Mrs. Dodds, Percy's stern mathematics teacher who secretly serves the god Hades as one of the three Furies
 * Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano, Sally's husband and Percy's stepfather. Executive producer Rebecca Riordan stated that his abusive behavior, present in the book, was toned down for the show as its cruelty would be a lot more obvious on screen than on the page, and "this isn't supposed to be a horror show".
 * Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue, a strong-willed daughter of Ares who bullies Percy
 * Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan, a cunning son of Hermes and the counselor of the Hermes cabin
 * Andrew Alvarez as Chris Rodriguez, a son of Hermes and Luke's half-brother
 * Adam Copeland as Ares, the arrogant and daring god of war
 * Nick Boraine as Kronos, the King of the Titans who appears as a voice in Percy's dreams

Guest

 * Manoj Sood as Percy Jackson's second grade principal
 * Olivea Morton as Nancy Bobofit, a blunt teacher's pet who relishes tormenting Percy
 * Hiro Kanagawa as the unnamed headmaster of Yancy Academy. Kanagawa also portrays Kronos' headmaster form in a dream in "We Take a Zebra to Vegas".
 * Simon Chin as Eddie, the building superintendent of the apartment building that the Jacksons live in
 * Threnody Tsai as Sarah, a wheelchair using demigod and skilled archer
 * Kathleen Duborg as Helena, a dryad and maternal figure for Grover
 * Jason Gray-Stanford as Maron, a member of the Council of Cloven Elders
 * Garfield Wilson as Leneus, a member of the Council of Cloven Elders
 * Jennifer Shirley as Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi whose mummified remains are in Camp Half-Blood
 * Sara J. Southey as Tisiphone, a member of the Furies
 * Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, a gorgon who lives in solitude and has a past with Percy's father
 * Suzanne Cryer as Echidna, the menacing mother of monsters
 * Jelena Milinovic as Eudora, a Nereid who works for Poseidon
 * Cindy Piper as Clotho, one of the three Fates, the goddesses of destiny. She is the Fate who weaves a person's thread of life.
 * La Nein Harrison as Lachesis, one of the three Fates, the goddesses of destiny. She is the Fate who measures a person's thread of life.
 * Joyce Robbins as Atropos, one of the three Fates, the goddesses of destiny. She is the Fate of who cuts a person's thread of life.
 * Timothy Omundson as Hephaestus, the God of blacksmiths and forges
 * Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods and the God of thieves and travelers
 * Ted Dykstra as Augustus, an older satyr and acquaintance of Grover
 * Julian Richings as Procrustes, a son of Poseidon, Percy's half-brother, and a waterbed salesman who stretches people to the size of the bed. Richings previously portrayed Charon in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
 * Travis Woloshyn as Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx
 * Jay Duplass as Hades, the God of the Underworld
 * Toby Stephens as Poseidon, Percy's father and god of the sea who is stubborn and impulsive
 * Lance Reddick as Zeus, the ferocious King of the Olympians whose thunderbolt has been stolen. The episode Reddick appeared in, "The Prophecy Comes True", was his final television appearance, following his death in March 2023; it was dedicated to his memory.

Series author Rick Riordan makes cameo appearances as a teacher in the headmasters' office at Yancy Academy and as a statue at Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium.

Development
In November 2018, Rick Riordan stated that he believed he would have no creative control over a Disney reboot of the Percy Jackson novel series if it were to happen, much like his experience with the film series with 20th Century Fox. In December 2019, Riordan pitched an adaptation of the novels to the Walt Disney Company, which had acquired Fox in March of that year. By May 2020, a Disney+ series based on Percy Jackson was in the works, with the first season set to adapt the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief. Riordan revealed in March 2021 that searches for the series' directors and cast was underway, with James Bobin being announced as the pilot episode's director in October. Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz were also announced as showrunners in July.

The series was greenlit in January 2022, with Disney Branded Television, 20th Television, and the Gotham Group producing the project. Steinberg, Shotz, Bobin, and Riordan were announced as executive producers alongside Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D. J. Goldberg. At the D23 Expo in September, Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson were revealed to be executive producing the series as well. The same month, Riordan revealed that Engström would direct the third and fourth episodes while Wilkinson would direct the fifth and sixth. The series was reportedly made with a budget of $12 to 15 million per episode.

In February 2024, Disney+ renewed the series for a second season, which will adapt the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters. In April 2024, Albert Kim was announced as a new executive producer starting with the second season.

Writing
Drafts of the pilot episode were being reviewed by March 2021. In April 2021, it was announced that Steinberg would serve as co-writer and executive producer of the pilot alongside Riordan. The same day, Monica Owusu-Breen, Daphne Olive, Stewart Strandberg, Zoë Neary, Joe Tracz, and Xavier Stiles joined as writers. Each season of the series will adapt one installment of the book series, with the first season being an adaptation of The Lightning Thief. There are also plans to adapt additional material within the franchise for the series. In addition to writing the pilot, Riordan and co-showrunner Steinberg created a series bible for the show, as well as planning the plot for the first season and creating ideas for potential future seasons. The first season consists of eight episodes.

Writing for the second season had begun by March 2023, though Riordan cautioned that it had yet to be greenlit at that point. Plans for future seasons include a further exploration of Chiron's disability.

Casting
Preliminary casting began in April 2021. In January 2022, Walker Scobell was cast in the lead role as Percy Jackson, with this being announced in April. The next month, it was announced that Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri would respectively portray Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, two close friends of Percy. Jeffries' casting received online backlash due to Annabeth not being depicted as black in the novels, which Riordan claimed was racism, and stated, "Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true." Logan Lerman, who played Percy in the film series, praised the casting of Scobell, Jeffries and Simhadri in their roles.

In June, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally, and Timm Sharp were announced to be appearing in recurring capacities as Sally Jackson, Chiron, Dionysus, Alecto, and Gabe Ugliano, respectively. The same month, Dior Goodjohn and Charlie Bushnell joined the cast in recurring roles as Clarisse La Rue and Luke Castellan, respectively, while Olivea Morton was announced to portray Nancy Bobofit in a guest role. Adam Copeland was cast in the recurring role of Ares in October, while Suzanne Cryer and Jessica Parker Kennedy were cast in the guest roles of Echidna and Medusa, respectively. In November 2022, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jay Duplass, and Timothy Omundson were announced to guest-star as Hermes, Hades, and Hephaestus, respectively; as were Lance Reddick and Toby Stephens in January 2023, announced to portray Zeus and Poseidon, respectively. Jason Gray-Stanford was cast in an undisclosed role in March 2023, later revealed to be Maron.

Casting for the second season began in June 2024.

Filming
Principal photography for the first season began on June 2, 2022, in Vancouver, British Columbia, under the working title Mink Golden, and concluded on February 2, 2023. The series utilized an LED stage powered by Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft visual effects technology.

Design
Tish Monaghan serves as the costume designer.

Music
By October 2023, Bear McCreary had been writing music for the series, after previously working with Steinberg and Shots in the series Human Target, Black Sails and See. Members of the music company Sparks & Shadows, which McCreary was a co-founder of, were involved. The score for the series was released digitally by Hollywood Records on December 22, with Sparks & Shadows credited as composer and McCreary credited with writing the themes.

Marketing
A teaser for the series was revealed during the D23 Expo in September 2022. Rotem Rusak of Nerdist highlighted how the teaser featured the opening lines of The Lightning Thief, while Kendall Myers of Collider noted the teaser's dark tone. A second teaser trailer for the first season was released on September 19, 2023. The trailer was released on November 16 and was viewed 84.3 million times in the first 10 days across all social media platforms.

Release
While the season was initially expected in early 2024, Hulu announced episodes would be available to stream beginning December 20. The first season premiered on Disney+ with two episodes on December 19, 2023, a day earlier than previously scheduled. A red carpet premiere event was held in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 13 and at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on December 16. Eight episodes were released weekly until January 30, 2024.

Audience viewership
In December 2023, Disney announced that 13.3 million viewers watched the premiere episode in its first six days on Disney+ and Hulu. In January 2024, Disney announced that 26.2 million viewers watched the premiere episode after three weeks. The second through fifth episodes each amassed at least 10 million viewers after seven days. In total, the series was streamed for 110 million hours over seven weeks on Disney+ and Hulu. According to Whip Media's TV Time, Percy Jackson and the Olympians was the most streamed original television series across all platforms in the United States during the weeks ending on January 28, 2024, and February 4, 2024. Through May 10, 2024, the first season was the most watched Disney+ original series with 23.3% of audience viewership.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 60 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "A faithful adaptation of Rick Riordan's novels, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a lovingly realized odyssey through adolescence and myth." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Nicole Drum of ComicBook.com wrote "Some of the best casting ever in a television series, fantastic performances, and even the magic of the visuals and world-building, the series is about as perfect a television adaptation as you can get, as if it's been favored by the gods themselves." Matthew Creith of TheWrap praised the writing, describing it as "quick-witted, the action is stellar, and making Percy's journey an episodic tale helps to propel the young character forward in exciting directions." Kathryn Porter of Paste wrote, "From the casting to the writing to the production design, we get the adaptation of The Lightning Thief that we have been wanting for over a decade to see, and there is nowhere to go but up." Aramide Tinubu of Variety wrote, "The series depicts a genuinely inclusive world, showcasing storylines and characters that will captivate fans for the next decade. At long last, Riordan's work has been given the extensive visual adaptation it deserves."

Documentary special
In January 2024, Disney+ announced the behind-the-scenes documentary A Hero's Journey: The Making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premiered alongside the season 1 finale on January 30, 2024.