Disney Plus’ T.V show adaptation of the highly popular book series by Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, features gods, monsters, mayhem and even a bride. Season One, titled The Lightning Thief, was released weekly from late 2024 to early 2025. It was incredibly action packed, following main characters Percy, Annabeth, and Grover spending time at Camp Half Blood, a safe haven for demigods, before venturing together on a quest to protect the world from a godly war (imdb.com).
Percy and Annabeth, who are demigods, children of a god and human, are played by Walker Scobell and Leah Jeffries. Grover, on the other hand, is a Satyr, half-human and half-goat, and is played by Aryan Simhadri. While many support the creative decisions for the casting, there has also been some controversy about the castings for the characters, as they do not exactly fit the book’s description. Originally, Percy was described as a tall, tanned, and dark haired boy while Walker is blonde and of a paler complexion. Annabeth was described as a lightly tanned, grey eyed girl with wavy blonde hair, while Leah Jefferies is African-American with dark hair and brown eyes (rickriordan.com). English teacher Mrs. Manzo states, “I like the casting. I think they are great actors and fit the roles very well!”
The Lightning Thief may focus more on the trio whereas season two, Sea of Monsters, focuses more on Percy and Annabeth. The seasons have a similar storyline where they must follow a dangerous quest, but this time it is to find the golden fleece in order to save Camp as a safe-haven, and to rescue Grover from the cyclops, Polyphemus. They must do all this while facing pushback from Luke, the leaders of camp, and many others trying to derail their quest. These trials and tribulations found in Sea of Monsters deepen Percy and Annabeth’s friendship as they make their journey (imdb.com).
As the season was released, the cast and crew made many public appearances at events such as the LA premiere and a plethora of interviews with varying sources that can be found on YouTube. Charlotte Landolfi, a sophomore at Ramapo, even went to 92NY’s event featuring host Josh Horowitz having a talk with Walker Scobell and an advanced screening of Episode 4 (92ny.org). She exclaims, “It was such a fun night! Walker had the whole room laughing. Both the talk and the episode were great so it was a really enjoyable night!”
The Percy Jackson series has and continues to impact so many people’s lives. Whether it is through the many books, or the movies and shows based off of them, people can’t seem to get enough of this world!
