The ‘Percy Jackson’ Cast Has the Weight of the World on Their Shoulders

Rick Riordan‘s Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise has always been a prescient fantasy about kids who have to grow up too fast to save a crumbling world their elders made and are doing nothing to fix. Told through the lens of Greek mythology, the concept is as timely now as it was when the first book debuted in 2005. When principled leaders are hard to find in real life, we turn to fantasy for a hero. Percy Jackson doesn’t pretend harsh realities don’t exist to shield kids; instead, it shows that young people are smart enough to face reality, and that standing on principle still matters and can light the way through tough times. They shouldn’t have to carry the weight of saving the world — but when they do, it’s easier with friends by their side.

Nearly 20 years after its 2007 publication, the third book in Riordan’s original five-part series, The Titan’s Curse, is finally getting its first-ever adaptation in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 3. The cast and creators feel the responsibility of bringing this story to life, but unlike the titan Atlas (Holt McCallany), who is cursed to hold up the sky, it’s a burden they are happy to bear.

Season 3 premieres on Friday, November 20, on Disney+ and Hulu, dropping two episodes weekly through December 11 (and yes, the episodes are longer). Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) always knew he’d feel lost on a quest without Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), and his worst fears come true when she is captured by the forces of Kronos. To rescue her, Percy must free a chained goddess, confront the Titan’s curse, and avoid triggering the fall of Olympus. Joined by his trusted satyr protector Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri) and a reluctant Thalia Grace (Tamara Smart), Percy teams up with unlikely quest-mates to confront a prophecy with dire consequences.

“The core of this season [and the show] really dissects history repeating itself,” executive producer Dan Shotz tells TV Insider. “A lot of what we deal with in real life is, are we allowing things that we should have learned from back in the day [to] happen again? That is what this story — its full arc, but especially this season — is. It’s the gods versus the titans with the demigods in between. Can these demigods prove to their parents that they should not fall into the same traps they had with their parents? We hope our demigods can open eyes [and] prove with their actions that history does not have to repeat itself.”

Percy Jackson is the ideal modern young-adult adaptation because the demigods not only act on principle, but also understand that human nature complicates decision-making. Their faith that doing the heroic thing will lead to the right outcome offers the kind of clear-headed conviction that the harshness of adulthood so often strips away. Riordan’s fantasy world shows what happens when that belief endures — further bolstered by framing neurodivergent thinking not as a flaw, but as a superpower. What these godly parents put their children through is awful, but the kids will prevail, even if only out of spite. In fact, this season brings long-overdue apologies from some of the adults who failed them.

Having grown up loving these books, the young cast has always been driven to deliver for fans who waited years for a faithful adaptation. But now, with Season 3 marking the first-time-ever screen adaptation of The Titan’s Curse, book lore and fan imagination are the only source material left to compare them to.

First Time’s the Charm

Standing on the edge of this uncharted territory, does sharing their characters with the world feel easier or more complicated? For Scobell, it’s the former — thanks to a friend.

“Everyone acts a little bit differently [in] interviews versus real life. In a weird way, I’ve started using Percy to do interviews,” Scobell (Percy?) shares. “When people see interviews, and they’re like, ‘Oh, he’s exactly like Percy,’ it’s a big compliment because I put myself in [his] mindset. I make the same jokes that I improv as Percy. A lot of the time I am just acting like Percy.”

The Adam Project breakout admits he prefers keeping certain parts of his life just for himself and his loved ones. The son of Poseidon (Toby Stephens) and Sally Jackson (Virginia Kull) feels close enough to his real personality that stepping into that persona feels genuine.

“He’s almost the most authentic version of myself I can put out there without just putting everything out there,” Scobell explains.

While Scobell feels protective of Percy, he knows the character ultimately belongs to Riordan and to anyone who has ever turned the pages of the books.

It’s natural for readers to feel a sense of ownership over their favorite literary characters, but for this cast, the connection runs even deeper — they are actively living those thoughts and emotions on screen. As their longtime acting coach, Andrew Mcilroy, reminds them, the human body can’t differentiate between performance and reality while in the middle of a scene.

For Jeffries, sharing Annabeth with the world both is and isn’t getting easier “because so many people see Annabeth in so many different ways.” In many ways, she feels as though she’s raising Annabeth herself — a protective mindset that naturally bleeds into her performance of a young girl forced to grow up on her own. (Annabeth’s mortal father, Frederick Chase, is introduced in Season 3, played by Jesse L. Martin, opposite Andra Day as her mother, Athena).

“You become the person. When I became Annabeth, I still made sure that there was a little bit of me,” Jeffries says. “Because of how I look, too, I have to make sure that there’s a little bit of me in there and [bring] her out into the world, making sure that each season she grows up, yes, and she becomes more feminine, but she [also] becomes more of a superhero. I feel like I’m growing her into this Wonder Woman type, but she’s still Annabeth.”

The Disney+ middle grade fantasy series is moving into YA territory with more life-threatening stakes for the demigods, which now includes Camp Half-Blood newcomers Nico (Levi Chrisopulos) and Bianca di Angelo (Olive Abercrombie). The book mandates that Jeffries is in less of the season, but new scenes made for the series show what happened while she was taken so the leading lady isn’t gone too long. And they deliver. Everyone’s upping their game in Season 3.

“I’ve always struggled with being really self-conscious of the product,” Simhadri says. “I’ve always had a hard time replicating the truth of a scene over consistent takes as opposed to what I want it to sound like and look like from a choreography sense. I’ve started to think about that less, so sharing what Grover authentically feels in any moment is easier.”

“I feel like he’s my friend who’s going through a really hard time,” Simhadri shares, “and I want to see him overcome it, get better, and realize it’s not all his fault.” He has major milestones on that front this year.

Before Percy, Grover was tasked with helping Thalia, Luke (Charlie Bushnell), and Annabeth reach Camp Half-Blood safely. After surviving a monster battle at the camp’s border, Thalia was struck down by her father, Zeus (Courtney B. Vance), for defying him, and transformed into a magical pine tree to protect the camp. In the years that followed, Luke was radicalized by titan-king Kronos (Nick Boraine) into rebelling against his father, Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda), and seeking the destruction of Olympus.

“Season 1, I definitely was second-guessing myself a lot [and] dealing with imposter syndrome,” Bushnell says. But now, he feels “like Luke just exists within my body.” The cast often teases him for being “Luke’s number-one defender,” but who would if not him? After all, everyone’s the hero of their own story. According to Scobell, Percy grows to understand Luke’s perspective much more this season.

“Things happen to them on the quest because of the gods. If he would’ve joined Luke, maybe they wouldn’t have to deal with this,” he says. Fans and Scobell agree that Annabeth being in danger brings out the best in Luke and the worst in Percy — a dynamic that will intensify even further in the third season.

You’ll be hard-pressed to convince Thalia that Luke is a villain. Zeus’ daughter clashes with fellow Forbidden Child and cousin Percy when their quest to bring Nico and Bianca to camp results in Annabeth falling off a cliff into no man’s land with a monster. See them fighting said monster in the exclusive clip from Episode 1 below.

That sudden tonal shift made the premiere the biggest acting challenge of the season for Simhadri. For Scobell, the biggest test came in Episode 4. Scattered throughout the life-threatening quest are check-ins with the big-bad villain, Atlas, on Mount Othrys. Cursed by the gods to hold up the sky for eternity, the titan seeks both a replacement and revenge. But how do you actually visualize holding up the sky on screen? The show’s answer is an asteroid-like, stormy globe that constantly rotates and grinds down on whoever bears its weight. As the trailer reveals, Percy will have to take his turn.

While the set piece itself is suspended — and thus light as a feather — its shape and placement require the actors to hold a continuous squat with their arms and neck locked at awkward angles, making physical exhaustion inevitable. But the sequence goes far beyond physical pain.

“We go inside their brains and see what is happening,” Shotz reveals. “That is really the weight of the world. … You are trapped in an emotional tornado of the thing that deep in your insides causes you the most pain.”

This season marks “the first time any of the major threats we’ve been setting up have felt real to us,” Simhadri admits. “We’ve really established a world and with that comes things that we can lose.”

To rescue Annabeth, Percy and Thalia have to work together, but their diametrically opposed views of Luke — and their clash over who cares about Annabeth more — create constant friction.

Fans have been a huge part of Smart’s creative process. “They are such a good beacon and wind to my sails to help me really get down to unanswered [Thalia] questions,” she shares. Smart even drew inspiration for Thalia’s hair, makeup, and styling directly from fan art across social media.

“I really wanted to create a Thalia that works for everyone,” she says. “I know you won’t make everyone happy — I’m so totally OK with that — but I do feel very attached to her. She is almost a more confident version of myself, so I’m definitely protective of her.”

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Being the first to adapt The Titan’s Curse gives them the chance to show these characters in new ways. These are the details the cast felt were the most important to highlight in this new chapter.

This is the first quest where Percy “is forced to constantly be making the decisions that Annabeth would normally,” Scobell says. “He’s also either getting pushback or forced to agree with the decision Thalia’s made.” They’re fighting over Annabeth’s spot as the person with the best ideas. “It’s almost like the brain’s not there and they’re both trying to be the brain,” he jokes.

The hotheaded demigods are both Forbidden Children (the uniquely powerful offspring of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades). Their conflicting powers of water and lightning could make a perfect storm if they figure out how to get along. Percy and Thalia are “mirrored but completely different versions” of each other, Smart says. Percy’s powers are more second-nature to him now, and he’s in the Annabeth position of having to convince Thalia that while their Olympian world is flawed, there is good within it that’s worth saving.

Smart was most eager to show Thalia as “incredibly strong, independent, fierce, and very comfortable challenging authority.” However, those traits come at a price.

“A lot of that strength comes from having to grow up faster than she did,” says Smart. “I’m excited to see that it can make it difficult for people to protect her in return and what that looks like when she’s vulnerable and sad. What interests me is seeing how people respond to how she presents to the world and the person she is underneath all of the armor.”

Jeffries wanted to show “how truly loving [Annabeth] really is.”

“She has so much strength, but you can really tell how much she loves people,” she explains. “It’s like if you have a whole family breaking apart and one kid is trying to save everything.”

Annabeth still wants to mend the rift between Percy and Luke, because she hasn’t given up on Luke yet. “You will see that everything she does, no matter what happens, she is going to help the other person as well,” Jeffries promises.

“[Grover] feels like he deserves to carry that weight of the world in a sense,” Simhadri notes. “This season is a turning point for him where he realizes that if he wants to truly keep protecting his friends, he needs to, A) let them go in a mentor-student capacity, and B) handle his grief. He has a lot of hard conversations.”

Bushnell says it was important to keep pushing Luke after being demoted by Kronos. After failing to kill Percy, “he’s the most broken down and vulnerable we see Luke so far,” he says.

“[Luke is] working over-time to work his way back up the ladder,” Bushnell explains, offering up an intriguing tease: “There’s a particular part of Luke’s past that comes back pretty full circle this season.”

Meet the Di Angelos (Finally)

Book fan-favorites Nico and Bianca di Angelo are perhaps the most highly anticipated characters in this series so far. They’re main characters in the story moving forward, but they’ve never made it onscreen since the Percy Jackson movies only covered two books. This season, they’re involved in a turning point that, in a sense, marks the end of childhood for the demigods.

Casting the brother and sister was an important process. Chrisopulos fit the Nico bill perfectly.

“When I read the book, that’s how I saw him,” says executive producer Craig Silverstein. “That’s rare because sometimes you’re finding someone who’s a little bit close to the role and then you try to shift your mind.”

“Olive had a quirky offbeat quality in her audition that drew us to her,” Silverstein adds. “Bianca was a character we could elevate and really dig into because there’s some questions about Bianca in the books. She leaves her brother right away and fans have noticed that, but then she also cares about him. We’re trying to join that part together. … [Abercrombie] has this absolutely magnetic quality to her and you just root for her right from the second you see her in that first episode in the gym.”

In the spirit of expanding, there are some more surprises in store for characters who aren’t really involved in Titan’s Curse.

“You don’t get to see too much of Nico and Bianca’s actual relationship when nobody else is listening [in the book],” Abercrombie points out. “In the show, you get to see more. Being able to do those scenes with Levi was so fun.”

Nico struggles with being “defined by his age,” according to Chrisopulos (Nico is 15, the actor is 14). “He’s very determined to break down those boundaries in order to protect his sister and do what he needs to do.”

For years, Nico and Bianca have only had each other. Their lives are changed forever at camp and beyond. With Nico safe at camp, Bianca can explore what she wants out of life for the first time. She’s dazzled by the Hunters of Artemis, including Zoë Nightshade (Saara Chaudry). In exchange for vowing to reject love as long as they live and dedicating themselves to the hunt of monsters at Artemis’ (Dafne Keen) side, the Hunters can live forever, but they’re not immortal.

“As a protector of Nico, she sees the Hunters, they’re all super strong women and protectors of each other,” Abercrombie explains. “She immediately latches onto that and wants to be like them and really looks up to Zoë.”

Unlike their costars, Chrisopulos and Abercrombie watched, then read, Percy Jackson. Chrisopulos says this experience parallels Nico and Percy’s.

“I was a fan of the show before I was introduced to the [book’s] world. Nico was a fan of Mythomagic and knew all the cards, had them all memorized,” he explains. “Then he entered into the world of the Greek gods, and [the cards] really helped ease [that] transition. It felt very natural to him.”

Once they’re introduced into this mythological world, these lonely outsiders feel like their lives finally make sense, a feeling that everyone at Camp Half-Blood understands. However, Percy is desperate to protect their innocence.

“Kids at camp have gotten seriously injured or died trying to earn glory so that their parents would claim them as their child,” Scobell says. “Looking at how their lives have gone so far and how innocent and excited they are, I don’t think he wants them to have to deal with that truth yet.”

Unbreakable Trios

Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, and Luke have been dealing with hard truths for a long time, and the constant separations from their found families make it harder. When one of them is gone, these are the pieces of their friends they carry with them.

“There’s a certain way that Annabeth talks to people and the gods,” Scobell says. “You don’t really give them anything. It’s all about information. You let them in a little bit to how you feel, and they’ll grab the thread and pull it. That’s something Percy’s taken from Annabeth and all of his interactions with the gods.”

“In Grover’s eyes, there isn’t a good guy or a bad guy,” Scobell continues. “Over time, Percy’s learning to see the world as Grover does, because Percy, originally it’s very black and white: Luke’s bad, this side’s good. He’s learning to understand the different shades and complexity of the situation.”

“From Grover, it’s the calming peace of mind,” Jeffries says. “Grover was always, ‘Hey, guys, we got this in the bag, we’re good. Even though there’s a whole monster about to chew us up, we love each other.’ In a certain little scene [where] she has to, not convince people, but show a more loving side to really get something out of them, she definitely pulls out that Grover side. I know, and y’all know, Annabeth would be like, ‘OK, it’s either going to be like this or you’re going to die, so which one is it going to be?'”

Annabeth is embracing Percy’s impertinent spirit. “[It’s] that feeling of, ‘I’m just going to do this and not think about it,’” she says. “Not saying that Percy doesn’t think at all, he does, but the way he works sometimes is also like, ‘Oh, that’s a miracle for that to [work out].'”

Percy inspires her to act on instinct. “Even though Annabeth has so much knowledge, she can still get caught up in her own mind,” Jeffries adds. “[When there’s] a ticking time bomb, sometimes just going and doing it is 10 times better.”

Simhadri says Grover survived Polyphemus’ island last season because of what he learned from his best friends.

“The whole wedding dress bit is such a mixture of Annabeth and Percy. It’s so clever,” he explains. “He uses what’s in his surroundings, which is something Annabeth does, but it’s so impromptu and scrapped together that that’s exactly Percy. Coming into Season 3…he’s starting to be able to fend for himself more, and that’s something he picks up from the both of them.”

Years ago, Thalia, Annabeth, and Luke were their own trio. Bushnell says that, to this day, “Everything Luke does is for [Thalia and Annabeth]. He carries them with him wherever they go.”

“He really found a family. Even though they were homeless…and constantly running away from and fighting off monsters, fearing for their lives every day, those were some of the happiest years of his life,” he continues. “If he could go back to that, he would in a second. Many things in his life have led him down the path he’s currently on, but losing Thalia was a major turning point.”

“At the beginning of the shoot, we came to this realization of when you know someone like the back of your hand, they are the most important person to you that you adore and love and cherish and you lose that person, in the process, [you] lose yourself,” Smart explains of Thalia and Luke. “I don’t think [you] can be dissuaded [from your] past opinion of them unless you’ve seen [their changes] in action.”

“Love is blind,” she admits. “We don’t want to be convinced that the people we love are capable of doing bad things.”

“[Thalia’s] not prepared to listen to some guy that got her out of a tree and she electrocuted and that has a crush on her sister-daughter figure,” Smart jokes. “She wants to hear [the truth] from the horse’s mouth.”

Speaking of crushes…

The Percabeth Timeline

Because the books have been out for decades, it’s not a spoiler that Percy and Annabeth end up together. The show’s creators have said since Season 1 that Percy and Annabeth’s romance is a priority, one they’ve been bread-crumbing since the very first episode.

Where are we on the Percabeth timeline in Season 3? “We are in the meat of it,” says executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg.

“[We’re] in the moment in which two kids who were kids who found each other and saw someone else who knew what it was like to be lonely and became dependent on each other are growing up and starting to have different feelings,” he details. “We’re getting the beginnings of how much that can complicate a friendship as close as they are at that age. We’re seeing them realizing, ‘There are questions we’re going to have to answer that we do not have the vocabulary to really figure out. We’re flying by the seat of our pants.’ I like the feeling of that starting to take flight.”

“That’s where it’s going” should the series be renewed, Steinberg says. “You know when you sign up for this show that this is about how the two of them are going to navigate going from 12, 13-year-old best friends to people who have feelings for each other while they have to do their job and save the world at the same time…We’re seeing the moment where the sparks start getting thrown off of that machine as you realize they don’t know how to talk about this and it’s going to have to get dealt with.”

They have the goddess of love, Aphrodite (Kate McKinnon), joining the fold (plus the other 11 occupants of the thrones in the Hall of the Gods on Mount Olympus), but how helpful can she be when the gods are threatened by the mere existence of the demigods?

With another Forbidden Child in the ring, there are now two kids capable of fulfilling the Great Prophecy that foretold either the end or the salvation of Olympus.

Kronos tried to eat his adult children. They fought back and (almost) wiped their dad out of existence. They let that generational trauma fester until history has started to repeat itself. Both sides know their desired outcome from the Great Prophecy, and they’ll let their children pay the price to save themselves, but Percy and Co have never been good at following orders.

The fate of the world is on their shoulders. No pressure.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 3 Premiere, Friday, November 20, Disney+ and Hulu