Disney+ has announced that Walker Scobell (The Adam Project) will star in the upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians series on Disney+. The Percy Jackson series will follow the events of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians novels by Rick Riordan, which follow the adventures of a group of teenagers descended from the Greek gods. Percy Jackson, the titular hero, is a son of the sea god, Poseidon, who – over the course of five books – must learn how to grow into his power and his role as a legendary hero and leader. In the first book, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, which will inspire the events of the Disney+ series, Percy is accused of stealing from the sky god Zeus and must race to stop a war that will end humanity.
Why we need a “Percy Jackson” series
The Percy Jackson Disney+ series was first announced in January 2022. It follows in the footsteps of Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief (2010) and Percy Jackson & the Sea of Monsters (2013), a pair of movies starring Logan Lerman and directed by Chris Columbus and Thor Freudenthal, which were generally regarded as a maladaptation of the books and a box office flop. According to TVLine, Riordan has more creative control over the series, having written the pilot episode alongside Jon Steinberg.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Walker Scobell has the “perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark and heroism” to portray Percy Jackson, who “[is] smart and compassionate, with a sharp sense of humor” and used to being seen as an outcast because of his dyslexia and ADHD. Walker Scobell’s series history sees him star in The Adam Project (2022) as a younger version of Ryan Reynold’s Adam Reed, a time traveler who crash lands in 2022.
James Bobin is to direct the Percy Jackson series, which is set to premiere on Disney+ in 2023.
