See First Look At Percy Jackson Cast In Costume
Percy Jackson is getting rebooted as a series on Disney+ and we have the first look at the cast in costume.
Filming on the new Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians is into its third month in Vancouver, British Columbia, and we finally have our first look at the actors in costume and filming scenes. The look comes from Twitter user @HeyKarennM, who posted photos and a short video of the Percy Jackson cast filming a scene in downtown Vancouver. According to Screen Rant, actors Walker Scobell (playing Percy Jackson), Leah Sava Jeffries (playing Annabeth), and Aryan Simhadri (as Grover) are all in the scene being filmed.
A second tweet features a video of the cast filming a scene, showing Percy, Annabeth, and Grover crossing the street. They are wearing casual clothes and carrying backpacks, although no other context for the scene is available. ScreenRant does point out that the Grover character, who is a satyr, appears to be wearing motion capture socks, so there is the possibility that his legs will be replaced by CGI goat legs. We do know that the first season will cover the events in the first Percy Jackson book, The Lightning Thief, part of the “Camp Half-Blood” series.
*Video pic.twitter.com/uUaN8wju2y
— Luna⁷ 💜 ⟭⟬ (@HeyKarennM) August 15, 2022
The series adapts the best-selling young adult book series from author Rick Riordan, who is also writing the series. The books tell the story of 12-year-old Percy Jackson, an otherwise normal kid who discovers one day that he is actually a demigod with supernatural powers. As the son of Poseidon and a mortal mother, Percy has powers over the seas, but when he is accused of stealing Zeus’ master lightning bolt, he and his friends Annabeth (Jeffries) and Grover (Simhadri) set out on an adventure to clear his name. Five seasons of the series are planned, each covering a book in the series. Riordan recently announced that the season is nearly halfway through production, with the events of Chapter Nine from the book having just wrapped filming.
The cast is led by Scobell, who was most recently seen in the Netflix hit The Adam Project. In addition to Scobell’s co-stars Jeffries and Simhadri, the series also stars Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Glynn Turman as Chiron, Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus, Megan Mulally as Alecto, Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano, Dior Goodjohn (Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?) as Clarisse La Rue and Charlie Bushnell (Diary of a Future President) as Luke. The series will have no connection to the Percy Jackson movies that were released in 2010 (The Lightning Thief) and 2013 (Sea of Monsters), which starred Logan Lerman and Alexandra Daddario.
The Percy Jackson book series has fans worldwide, with over 180 million copies sold. The Disney series has been welcomed by fans who are hoping for a more detailed, faithful adaptation of the books. Still, the show is not without controversy. When Leah Jeffries was announced as playing Annabeth, some fans objected, as Jeffries is African American, and the Annabeth character is described in the books as fair-skinned with light eyes. Author Rick Riordan blasted the criticism as racist, and said Jeffries is a great actress who best captured the essence of the character. Even Alexandra Daddario, who played Annabeth in the films, voiced her support for Leah.
Earlier this summer, Riordan stated that we will likely not see the Percy Jackson series premiere on Disney+ until early 2024. “I think the most likely air date will probably be early 2024. Again, that’s just me guessing,” Riordan wrote in a blog post on his website. “The actual release dates are determined by the studio and the streaming service.” Riordan and Jon Steinberg are writing the series, with James Bobin (Muppets Most Wanted) directing.
