Filming is currently underway for the upcoming Disney+ Original series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”
Based on Disney Hyperion’s best-selling book series by award-winning author Rick Riordan, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. With help from his friends Grover and Annabeth, Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus.
The series stars Walker Scobell, who will play the titular character in this epic adventure and Aryan Simhadri (Disney’s “Spin”) and Leah Sava Jeffries (“Empire”) who will play Percy’s friends Grover and Annabeth, respectively. Additional cast includes Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally, and Timm Sharp who will all have recurring guest star roles. Additionally, Charlie Bushnell will play Luke Castellan, Dior Goodjohn will play Clarisse La Rue, and Olivea Morton will play Nancy Bobofit.
Adam Copeland, Suzanne Cryer, and Jessica Parker Kennedy have also joined the cast.
Additionally, Lin-Manuel Miranda has joined the cast and will play the Greek god Hermes. Jay Duplass and Timothy Omundson will play Hades and Hephaestus, respectively.
WWE wrestler Adam “Edge” Copeland will be playing Ares, one of the Greek gods from the book series. Riordan recently took to Mastodon and hinted a little bit about Copeland’s performance on the series saying:
I’m thinking about this because of some great scenes Adam Copeland has filmed for us recently as Ares, the god of war. As they used to say on the monster truck rally commercials of my youth: “You can pay for the whole seat, but you’ll only need the Edge!”
In a previous post, Riordan gave insight into what it’s like to film the Disney+ series.
“I love watching our actors shoot this really serious scene, all the drama, and then someone drops a prop and they try so hard not to laugh. We’ll have to save that for the blooper reel.”
Riordan and Jon Steinberg are writing the pilot with James Bobin directing. Steinberg and his producing partner Dan Shotz are overseeing the series and serve as executive producers alongside Bobin, Rick Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson, and Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D.J. Goldberg.
20th Television is the studio.
Filming is currently underway on “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” and will continue through mid-January. A release date for the eight-episode series has not been announced yet but we may not see “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” premiere on Disney+ until 2024.
You can watch a first look at the series below:
Source: Deadline