There are plenty of challenges to making television, but there’s one major shadow that hangs over every show starring kids: how to handle the fact that they grow up much faster in real life than they will on the screen. But worry not, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” has its long game handled.
The series premiered on Disney+ in 2023, marking the second attempt to adapt Rick Riordan’s books after a duology of films released in 2010 and 2013. The story follows Percy, a 12-year-old boy who finds out he’s actually the son of Poseidon. And yes, they cast a boy of appropriate age in Walker Scobell, who was 14 when the show first came out.
The movies, which shut out Riordan (who now serves as an executive producer on the show), opted to age the kids up from the start, casting then-17-year-old Logan Lerman as Percy. The decision drew ire from devoted fans and even Riordan himself, so, when actual young teens Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri were cast as Percy, Annabeth and Grover respectively for the series, fans rejoiced.
Scobell and Jeffries were 13 at the time they were cast and Simhadri was 16, though he convincingly looked younger. But, when Season 2 premieres Wednesday, it will have been two years since Season 1 ended, and Scobell is already the age that Percy is meant to be at the end of the books. Riordan isn’t bothered by it, though; it was just part of a learning curve in figuring out his place on the show throughout season 1.
“I think one thing I did not fully appreciate when we started this whole process is how long a season of television takes to produce, especially big television like this,” Riordan told to TheWrap. “I didn’t really fully appreciate all the challenges involved. I think I naively thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll hire the kids of the right age, and we’ll do a season a year, no problem.’ But you know, in reality, that’s very difficult to do for a number of reasons.”
Among those reasons is the use of visual effects, but that approach has already changed. Season 1 of the show shot in The Volume, a giant wall of LED screens that can display any fictional environment in real-time while filming, as opposed to a green screen — the tech was invented for “The Mandalorian” and made producing a live-action “Star Wars” show viable.
But for Season 2 and beyond, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” will utilize massive practical sets. According to Simhadri, there’s one Season 3 set that is “like half a football field.”
“They’re building Mount Othrys right now, and I’m kind of scared to work on it, because it’s like, I don’t even know what to — I just feel so small in that space,” he told TheWrap.
But making “Percy Jackson” comes down to more than just effects. As Riordan explained, a show of this size involves more shooting days than series that are shot on only a handful of sets, there are more elements of post-production, and Disney+ waits for the data to see how the show is actually doing before renewing it.
“And then there’s the little matter of, you know, these are kids, and you got to give them some downtime,” Riordan added. “We can’t just work them 365, every year.”
That said, the show did score an early Season 3 renewal, and has been in production for a few months. Riordan was tight-lipped on how long the break between Seasons 2 and 3 will be for viewers, but conceded that the goal is to avoid another 2-year gap between seasons.
“I think it’s fair to say that everyone is hoping that, since we are collapsing the time between the production of Season 2 and Season 3, the hope would be that the wait won’t be as long on the viewers’ side,” he said.
Executive producer James Bobin — who also directs the first two episodes of season 2 and notched an Emmy win for directing in season 1 — also noted that the wait between seasons 1 and 2 was due in part to the long-term effects of Hollywood’s double strikes in 2023. There were only days between the end of filming on season 2 and the start of season 3.
“I think both have pluses and minuses,” he explained to TheWrap. “The gap allowed reflection and improvement in part of methodology, both in terms of how we shot the show, partly due to the nature of how different the two books are.”
“But running straight from 2 into 3 allowed continuity and didn’t require as much remembering of where we all left ourselves emotionally as characters at the end of the season,” he continued. “You basically stay ‘in.’”
Still, downsizing that wait will be key for viewers, especially if the show gets to complete its desired five-season run. As fans learned with shows like “Stranger Things” and “Euphoria,” taking multiple years between seasons leads to a tough suspension of disbelief, and sometimes outright frustration when you have 20- and 30-somethings attempting to convincingly play teenagers.
For their part, the “Percy Jackson” cast is aware of this particular sword hanging over them. According to Scobell, Jeffries and Simhadri, there have been conversations about it on set, but not in a pressure-filled way.
“Sometimes I feel like people blow it out of proportion,” Scobell told TheWrap. “When we’re filming Season 4 next year, I’ll be the same age Logan was in the first movie, you know? So I think we’re still behind the movies. But yeah, that’s also something that I feel like it’s getting easier as it goes on.”
The show has not been renewed for a fourth season yet, according to an individual with knowledge of the production.
Jeffries agreed, adding that no one is actively trying to age up the material just to keep up with the age of her and her co-stars, nor are the actors trying to force themselves to seem younger. In fact, the actress is hopeful that fans will be able to eventually compare the script to the final product to see for themselves.
“You can genuinely witness how, when you’re reading it, it sounds so much like 13-year-olds,” she explained. “But then how we play it, no matter if I do it — like, in the trailer, I literally say, ‘Are you OK to do this?’ I can’t be like (puts on an affected baby voice): ‘Are you sure? Are you OK to do this?’ I can’t be like that because that’s too babyish.”
Riordan noted that there is one “simple” story adjustment though, to give the show a bit more runway for the future, and it’s the only concession they’ve had to make.
In the books, The Great Prophecy indicates that a half-blood of the oldest Gods will become a powerful weapon when they beat the odds and turn 16 years old. This prophecy comes into play early in the season, but there’s a slight play on the language.
“It doesn’t say in the prophecy it’s going to happen on a 16th birthday. It says he has to reach 16, and then…’ you know?” Riordan said. “So I think we can fudge it a little bit on that angle, that ‘OK, congratulations, you made it to 16. Now, at some point after this, things are going to happen that are not going to be great.’ So we’re not tied to the 16th birthday, at least. I think that’s the only real thing that we’ve talked about as we look at season 3 that would make sense and help it seem a little more realistic.”
In fact, the actors are excited to start leaning into more mature elements as the show progresses and the audience ages up alongside them.
“I’m just going to say this very selfishly as an actor, I want the show to start feeling more and more mature,” Simhadri said. “And I think that kind of happens a little bit in Season 2. Obviously, it’s a Disney show, we can’t really go crazy with it, but there’s a lot more violence in Season 2 than there is in Season 1.”
And yes, the Percabeth relationship is coming too, but it’s going to be a proper slow burn like in the books. It’s also handled with levity on set.
“We know exactly what we have to do, what we’re going to do,” Jeffries teased. “And yeah, sometimes we’re looking like, ‘OK, this might get awkward’ because of our castmates. They joke around with us and stuff.”
“Like, we’ll be in there, we’ll be reading the script, and they’ll be like, ‘Awww, look at these two little love bugs!’ And we’re just like, ‘That’s enough, thank you very much. And the script is done, thank you.’ We genuinely just laugh about it.”
Really, Riordan, the cast, and the crew just want to deliver another season that fans of the books love (and then hopefully three more). All agree that, after a successful first season, the overwhelming feeling is both relief and more pressure too.
“I feel like I have a responsibility to try to fight for things that the fans want, as a fan,” Scobell said.
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” season 2 premieres on Dec. 10 on Disney+.
The post How ‘Percy Jackson’ Plans to Avoid the ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Euphoria’ Curses With Its Young Cast appeared first on TheWrap.
