Earlier this year, Disney officially renewed its Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series for a third season a full eight months before season two had even aired.
Such a decision allowed the studio to avoid one of the biggest complaints about modern streaming titles: the lengthy gaps between seasons. That issue is further compounded if the show involves a young cast of actors who might soon age out of their respective roles—Stranger Things being a prime example.
The good news is that production on Percy Jackson season three (based on The Titan’s Curse) is “a little over the halfway point,” series lead Walker Scobell surmised during a recent Zoom interview with SYFY WIRE. “There’s a lot of stuff we’ve shot that I’m really excited about, but I want to keep it [limited to] the first two episodes, which are my favorite first two episodes so far.”
Season three is unchartered territory, considering that only the first two books—The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters—were adapted for the big screen before 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios under Disney) gave up on its budding franchise.
“This third season will be new territory for the screen, bringing fan favorites like the Hunters of Artemis and Nico di Angelo to life for the first time,” Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan promised in the renewal press release.
If their luck holds, Disney will allow them to adapt the final two entries of Riordan’s original run: The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian. Scobell is very much aware of the fact that the Greek myth-inspired saga eventually cements a young romance between his character and Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and fellow member of Camp Half-Blood (played by Leah Sava Jeffries).
“It’s really awkward,” he admitted of the conversations he and his co-star have had on the subject. “It’s a weird thing to join when you’re 13-years-old. You just kind of look at each other and say, ‘Okay, this is the thing in the future. This is the next five years of our lives.'”
Thankfully, a template was already in place from another young adult phenomenon.
“By the time that we got cast, we’d already seen the Stranger Things kids go through similar things—like getting shipped with each other and all that kind of stuff,” Scobell said. “So, when we got to that point, the way was already paved for us. I think it was more just preparing for what’s to come in the future.”
New episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiere on Disney+ every Wednesday.
