How Courtney B. Vance Honored Lance Reddick on ‘Percy Jackson’ Season 2 Set
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Courtney B. Vance paid tribute to the late Lance Reddick before officially taking over his role as Zeus for Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
“Courtney was so great when he showed up — he made this speech to the cast and crew honoring Lance and saying that he knew what the responsibility was about stepping into the shoes of that performance,” the show’s executive producer Craig Silverstein shared in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Tuesday, July 22. “And it ended up being very emotional but very, very fulfilling. We were certain we had made the right choice before, but we were really certain when he gave that beautiful speech on the set before stepping in front of the camera.”
Walker Scobell, who plays the show’s titular demigod, shared that Reddick’s wife, Stephanie Reddick, visited the set to watch Vance film his scenes as Zeus. “He did such an amazing job,” Scobell told the outlet. “He honored Lance spectacularly.”
Lance died at the age of 60 in March 2023, nine months ahead of Percy Jackson‘s Season 1 premiere that December. Reddick makes a small appearance in the Season 1 finale, as Percy travels to Mount Olympus to present the King of the Gods with his missing Master Bolt — only to nearly get zapped by him after revealing Kronos’ plans to return to power.
Walker Scobell/Instagram
Vance was announced as Reddick’s replacement in November 2024. “I know that stepping into this role of Zeus will be a memorable experience and I’ll be giving my brother, Lance Reddick, who left us way too soon, a heavenly hug,” he said in a statement to Variety at the time.
In the EW article, Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan noted that he and Vance had “a lot of conversations” about how to honor Reddick in the show’s sophomore season. “Zeus being the king of the Gods, he’s important, but he doesn’t show up on screen a lot, but it’s important when he does because he has such gravitas,” he shared. “And Courtney did a great job with it, so we lucked out.”
Riordan added that Season 2 won’t dive into Zeus’ change of actor, describing the transition as “organic” and “seamless.”
Initially, the show’s creatives considered excluding Zeus from the new season, despite his demigod daughter, Thalia (portrayed by Tamara Smart), playing a pivotal role in The Sea of Monsters, the book on which the new episodes are based.
“Honestly, it was a decision that we weren’t sure we were going to have to face this season,” Silverstein told EW. “We knew that we would have to be faced with what to do about the role at some point, and it turned out to be this season.”
Smart’s casting as Thalia even shares a sweet connection to Reddick, as the actress played his on-screen daughter in the 2022 Netflix series Resident Evil. “Something felt very right about that,” said Silverstein.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 Premiere, December 2025, Disney+
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