‘Percy Jackson’: Walker Scobell on Poseidon’s ‘Insult’ & Tyson’s Arrival in Season 2
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Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) meets the little half-brother he never knew he had in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2. The cyclops Tyson (Daniel Diemer) makes his debut in the season premiere, airing Wednesday, December 10, on Disney+. Scobell tells TV Insider that the sudden arrival of his baby brother triggers some of Percy’s core wounds about their dad, Poseidon (Toby Stephens).
Percy met his dad for the first time in the Season 1 finale, when he returned Zeus’ (the late Lance Reddick, now played by Courtney B. Vance) stolen lightning bolt and prevented an Olympian war (for now). A flashback scene with Poseidon and Sally Jackson (Percy’s mom, played by Virginia Kull) made specially for Season 1 showed that Poseidon does love his son, whom the human Sally was struggling to raise by herself. There was also real love between Poseidon and Sally, but circumstances were keeping them apart. Percy didn’t know who his dad really was until he was 12 and monsters started hunting him down. When he met his dad in Olympus, he only had one question: “Do you ever dream about Mom?” The sweet kid didn’t ask if his dad loved him; he asked if his mom was loved.
“His feelings about his dad are very complicated,” Scobell tells TV Insider. “He never really got an answer for the dreaming thing in Season 1. The question he asked him [was] basically if his dad ever thinks about his mom.” Poseidon couldn’t bring himself to answer.
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That Sally-Poseidon flashback told viewers that the sea god probably thinks about Sally all the time. Percy still has no idea that this interaction ever happened, so he’s completely in the dark about what’s likely some mutual yearning between his split-up parents. Poseidon’s absence for all of his young life, plus the presence of his awful stepfather, Gabe (Timm Sharp), has left Percy feeling unloved in a way. Percy takes Tyson’s arrival as proof that his dad doesn’t love him, according to Scobell.
“At first, Percy thinks, ‘OK, this is an insult to me. My dad doesn’t care about me. This is just a show of how much he doesn’t actually care about me,'” Scobell tells us.
Tyson will join Percy and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) on their quest to save Grover (Aryan Simhadri) after he’s kidnapped by the cyclops Polyphemus (Aleks Paunovic). Tyson, who’s innocent and gentle at heart but has been through his own trying times before arriving at Camp Half-Blood, will exacerbate Percy and Annabeth’s struggle to understand each other in Season 2. Annabeth has a bias against cyclopes because a cyclops was involved in the death of her best friend, Thalia (Tamara Smart), the daughter of Zeus. Annabeth must unlearn her bias, and Percy must learn to reframe his feelings about his family.
“He starts to realize, throughout the quest, that it was actually more of a gift from his father, Tyson being there for him,” Scobell admits. “There’s a huge emotional roller coaster that Percy and Tyson go through together throughout Season 2. One of my favorite parts of filming was getting to do that with Daniel.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 Premiere, Wednesday, December 10, Disney+
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