‘Percy Jackson’: How That Thalia Twist Defines Season 3

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 finale.]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 3 is officially coming out in 2026, as revealed in the first of two end-credits scenes in the Season 2 finale on January 21. Executive producer Craig Silverstein tells TV Insider that there are about two months left of filming on the third season, and that the season’s Big Bad, Holt McCallany‘s Atlas, will start filming his scenes in these final months. Perhaps the biggest intrigue of the third season, however, is how things will change now that the series delivered a major plot twist with Thalia (Tamara Smart) and her godly parent, Zeus (Courtney B. Vance).

The Percy Jackson Season 2 finale followed the plot of Rick Riordan‘s Sea of Monsters ending, in that Thalia was brought back to life with the golden fleece. How she was turned into the magical tree that protected Camp Half-Blood’s barrier, however, is the big change. Rather than having Zeus honor his daughter’s sacrifice in a monster fight like in the book, Thalia’s transformation was a deliberate punishment from her father when she wouldn’t comply with his wishes. Another layer to this twist is Chiron (Glynn Turman) witnessing it all and nearly intervening, but keeping it secret for six years instead. Chiron came clean in the finale, marking a turning point for the character who has been dutifully loyal to Olympus in Seasons 1 and 2. Silverstein teases below that this will change in Season 3.

This change also gives Thalia a more compelling reason to hate Olympus and potentially join her best friend, Luke (Charlie Bushnell), in his rebellion for Kronos (Nick Boraine).

Here, Silverstein breaks down the finale with TV Insider, revealing why Riordan loved the Thalia twist idea and how the change will be a defining piece of Season 3.

 Explain Luke’s hatred for Percy [Walker Scobell] in the finale battle. Does he think he’d save Olympus? Is it because of Annabeth [Leah Sava Jeffries]?

Craig Silverstein: Luke’s fatal flaw is wrath, and that’s what Kronos is pushing and unleashing here. The idea that Thalia is a possibility to get back means that Percy is something they don’t have to treat with kid gloves anymore, because there’s another way to go with Thalia. So that kid’s gloves come off. There was a line in the fight that we cut where Percy sort of taunted him about his girlfriend coming back, and that triggered that even more. But that’s the point of that fight: to show that Luke is no longer fighting Percy just to beat him. He was fighting to kill him in that fight.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Charlie Bushnell (@iamcharliebushnell)

He definitely is. Why cut the line? Was it too intense?

Yeah, maybe it showed that Percy was just too cruel, too flippant about Thalia in the moment. Ultimately, we felt we didn’t really need it, and it was just strong enough to have these guys just come at each other without saying much.

Related

'Percy Jackson' Finale Explained by Walker Scobell, Plus Season 3 Updates (VIDEO)

Percy fears the unknown of Thalia in the season’s second half. How does he really feel about her in the finale? He does want to bring her back, and he helps Clarisse bring her back and finish the quest, but I imagine his feelings are complicated.

Yes. Ever since he heard about the great prophecy in Episode 3 from Annabeth, he’s been afraid of himself, and then that fear is even escalated when he learns that he’s got this fatal flaw, and that could be used. So all of the fears that he’s afraid of himself apply doubly to somebody whom he doesn’t know, who’d be in the same situation. So what we’re trying to do is really light a fire under the feeling of the last couple lines of Rick’s book, which is this person could be my best friend because we have so much in common, or my greatest enemy. [Being] caught between those two things, that conflict is the key to the Percy-Thalia dynamic.

Percy is struck by Thalia’s lightning, and then they both pass out for three days. Can you explain why that is? Is this an indication of some magical connection between forbidden children?

One of the reveals about her being in the tree is that, really, it’s just that moment. She starts this phrase six years ago: “I’ll never be your daughter, never, or I’ll never be your weapon,” to Zeus. And then she comes out, and she gets zapped into a tree before she can finish that. And then she comes out saying it with all of this, what we imagined is an electrical charge built up slowly over all that time. So when she charges up, she’s not zapping Percy. Her bolts go out. If you look at the shot, her bolts go out everywhere. We think that a few giants are hit, maybe some other campers are hit. It’s indiscriminate. It’s about how dangerous her power is, especially if it’s not controlled. And she can’t control it in that moment. The shock of all that is why she passes out.

Who knows what kind of magical trauma you accrue over being a tree for so long? You need a little time to wake up if you’re a tree for six years.

Disney / David Bukach

I did wonder, because they’re both children of the big three, if it was some kind of almost empathy link connection between the two, but…

I think spiritually that’s true.

Related

'Percy Jackson': Tamara Smart Hid Lance Reddick Tributes All Over Her Thalia Costume

Are Grover [Aryan Simhadri] and Percy still in their empathy link? I wonder if Grover would’ve been impacted by the lightning if Percy had been injured by this, too.

One of the aspects of the empathy link from the book that we did not do in the show was the idea that if Grover dies, Percy dies. They share dreams and all that, but it doesn’t extend to that. It was hard to track. And also, in a strange way, makes Percy less heroic because he’s not just fighting to save Grover, he’s fighting to save himself from dying. So that aspect of it — about you get hurt, and I get hurt — is not part of our empathy link.

That would make it a little convoluted. In a book, you can explore that more, but in a show, it might force more detail than you may have time for.

Yeah, and you’d have to be accounting for it in every single fight. Every time he risks himself, he’s risking Grover. It gets sticky.

So Percy and Grover are still in the empathy link, but it won’t kill them.

Empathy link is, yes. That’s never been part of this empathy link, but the idea of them sharing dreams and kind of maybe, in an unreliable way, able to sense where each other are, that persists.

Disney / David Bukach

You have a big change too, with the story of Thalia being turned into this tree. Explain the idea behind having Zeus do this as a punishment instead of following the books, which say that Zeus turned his daughter into a tree to honor her fatal sacrifice on Half-Blood Hill.

Related

'Percy Jackson': Walker Scobell Interviews His Costars (VIDEO)

Right. So like I was saying earlier, the reason that Percy’s worried about Thalia is that as a child of prophecy, she might be the one who fulfills the prophecy in the negative condition where she destroys Olympus, right? It’s a better story if she’s got real reasons to do that and a real beef with Zeus. That’s why Rick sparked to this idea of this twist because it actually enhances the stakes of where we’re going. And it’s also complicated because I don’t think Zeus shows up there to do that. It’s all of this, the bad or lack of parenting, because he’s an Olympian, she’s a demigod. It’s not like Sally [Jackson, Percy’s mom]. And so I think [Zeus is] also stung by what he did, but he’s not going to admit that to anyone, of course, because they both have a super high amount of pride.

Where are you in Season 3 production right now?

We’re back. We’re shooting. We have about two months left to shoot. We have quite a bit more to shoot, actually. And a lot to shoot. So we’ve got a bunch of directors up in Vancouver now at the same time, shooting scenes from different episodes across the story. So lots to do.

I know fans are very eager to see Atlas for the first time. What can you say about Holt’s performance so far if you’ve had him on set?

We’re about to. We’re on the cusp. We’ll find out.

You have your Chiron change as well. He witnessed what Zeus did to Thalia and didn’t tell anyone until she came back. How will this affect Chiron’s dynamic with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover in Season 3? Will they trust him moving forward, especially with Thalia in the mix now?

A lot of that will be answered in Season 3. Chiron did make a choice to tell them the truth, right? He made that choice, and he is the ultimate rule follower who now is done with following every single rule to the letter. He is choosing the demigods over the gods in that moment. And so I think that goes not all the way, but that goes a long way with the kids, that he decided to do that because he could have kept it a little longer.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 3 Premiere, 2026, Disney+