We must have had an internal inkling that a Percy Jackson and the Olympian announcement would drop today as we got another casting announcement. Now, we want to say that we haven’t done a ton of updates for the series because there just wasn’t a ton to go off, and it wasn’t worth writing a 200-word article on one thing. So, this post is kind of catch-up with everything we haven’t said yet. So, hold onto your tridents, PJO fans, because this is where we’re headed to Camp Half-Blood.
The PJO Release Date And Filming Updates
So, to begin, we wanted to go over the release date. It has been said that the series will drop to Disney+ sometime during 2024. Now, this is not 100% official yet, but it is the most likely time to air it, given the editing and the visual effects that need to be added. Also, the Percy Jackson News Twitter page posted a few days ago that there were just under 12 weeks left of filming.
Filming has been taking place in Vancouver, Canada, and scenes were recently shot of the Lotus Casino involving many extras.
Casting Updates
We’ve known some members of the cast for a while. A few months ago, we were introduced to the main three, who will play Percy, Annabeth and Grover. Please note that almost all this information we’ve either reported on previously or comes straight from verified sources or the Riordan Wiki’s PJO series page. Also, this is not a complete list of the cast, as there will likely be more.
- Walker Scobell (from The Adam Project and Secret Headquarters) will play Percy Jackson, the demigod son of Poseidon and Sally Jackson.
- Leah Sava Jeffries will play Annabeth Chase, a demigoddess daughter of Athena and Frederick Chase.
- Aryan Simhadri (from Disney+’s remake of Cheaper by the Dozen) will portray Grover Underwood, the satyr best friend of Percy and longtime protector of Annabeth.
Other Demigods
- Charlie Bushnell will play Luke Castellan, a demigod son of Hermes.
- Dior Goodjohn will be Clarisse La Rue, a demigoddess daughter of Ares.
Gods
- Jason Mantzoukas is Dionysus/Mr D, the Olympian god of Wine, an immortal son of Zeus and Camp Half-Blood’s Camp Director.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda is Hermes, the Olympian God of Travel, half-brother of Dionysus, son of Zeus and father of Luke. As of writing, Lin-Manuel’s casting was recently announced by Deadline and Rick Riordan, the writer of the books and one of the series’ producers.
- Adam Copeland is Ares, Olympian God of War, son of Zeus, and father of Clarisse.
Creatures
- Glynn Turman as Chiron/Mister Brunner, a son of Kronos, activities director of Camp Half-Blood and mentor to Percy, Annabeth, Grover and the demigods under his care.
- Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, a gorgon, owner of Auntie Em’s Garden Emporium and an ex-girlfriend of Poseidon.
- Suzanne Cryer is Echidna.
- Megan Mullally is Alecto/Ms. Dodds, a Fury.
Humans
- Virginia Kull is Sally Jackson, Percy’s mother.
- Timm Sharp is Gabe Ugliano, Sally’s husband and Percy’s abusive stepfather.
- Olivea Morton is Nancy Bobofit, a school bully who picks on Percy and Grover during their time at Yancy Academy.
A friend of Nancy’s was also cast.
PJO Notes
So, we have a few notes we wanted to put out there before we sign off on this post.
- Hermes’ appearance in the show’s first season does not match the Lightning Thief book for a reason. Rick Riordan has said there will be additional backstories for characters such as Luke. He has also stressed that the first season will maintain the original structure in the book, despite the character appearing ahead of time onscreen. Also, Hermes first appears in the second book, The Sea of Monsters.
- There will be blue food.
- There was backlash when Leah Jeffries was cast because she wasn’t caucasian and blonde like the books. Riordan defended the casting decision saying that they weren’t focusing on appearance and went with actors who embodied the personas of the characters. Her casting was also defended by Javicia Leslie, a former costar of Leah’s.
- The technology used on The Mandalorian and other properties, The Volume, will be used on PJO.
D23 also dropped a teaser for the series:
Entertainment Weekly also dropped an interview with the main cast and Rick from D23 a few weeks ago:
When Will Get More PJO Updates?
It’s hard to know when we’ll be able to do more PJO update articles as we don’t know when they will drop information. Also, we’ll wait until there is more intel before we write another post. So, follow us on Twitter at @cjhawk93 and Instagram at @weareprojectfangirl for updates.
