The brand new ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ series for Disney+ has begun filming. The show which was announced in 2020 was green-lit this year and has finally gone on floors. It is expected to air in the summer of 2023.
The series is based on the globally popular eponymous fantasy book series by Rick Riordan who is also involved in the writing of the episodes. Furthermore, he is an executive producer on the project as well.
The first season will be based on book one, ‘The Lightning Thief’. It follows Percy Jackson, a 12-year-old boy from New York who discovers that he is the son of the Greek God Poseidon. Before he can process this information, he finds himself being blamed by his uncle Zeus for stealing his symbol of power — the master bolt.
Walker Scobell has been cast to play the titular demigod whereas Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri will essay the characters of his best friends, Anabeth Chase and Grover Underwood.
The first two ‘Percy Jackson’ books were previously adapted into feature films which were not well received. The reason was reported to be their huge deviation from the source material and the makers not taking the author’s suggestions into consideration.
Riordan — who has been an active part of production this time around — recently announced that Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally and Timm Sharp will also be part of the project as Sally Jackson, Chiron, Mr. D, Mrs. Dodds and Gabe Ugliano respectively. He also shared a tweet announcing the inception of shooting.
While the pilot episode has been written by Riordan and showrunner Jonathan E. Steinberg, it will be directed by James Bobin. No further details have been revealed yet.
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