‘Percy Jackson’ Stars Reveal Their ‘Annabeth, I’d Burn It All Down’ Moments of Season 3

Walker Scobell said that landing the tone of his fan-favorite line in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2, “Annabeth, I’d burn it all down,” was hard to do. Heading into Season 3, The Titan’s Curse adaptation, were there more scenes like that in which the tone was tricky to land? Here, the Percy Jackson cast reveals their “Annabeth, I’d burn it all down” equivalents in the upcoming season (spoiler-free!) as part of our Season 3 cover story.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 3 premieres on Friday, November 20, on Disney+ and Hulu. Two episodes come out weekly through December 11, and as TV Insider reported in our Percy Jackson cover story, the episodes are getting longer. The intensity of the plot of Rick Riordan‘s Titan’s Curse required more detail and longer episodes (learn why the episodes were shorter in the first two seasons here), and with that came new acting challenges.

Percy Jackson always knew he’d feel lost on a quest without Annabeth Chase, and his worst fears come true when she is captured by the forces of Kronos in the Season 3 premiere. 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.

Disney/David Bukach

While Annabeth isn’t in much of the Titan’s Curse book because of her kidnapping, the TV series expands the source material with scenes revealing what happens to her while she is gone. The show has already established fantasy sequences and flashbacks where characters pop up out of nowhere, and that continues this season, so any character could appear and any configuration of actors could have scenes together.

In Season 2, when facing their fatal flaws with Circe (Rosemarie DeWitt), Percy realized that his fierce loyalty to those he loves could be deadly for anyone he cares about.

“You guys should be afraid of me because that lady’s right. I saw it. I see it now,” Percy said. “Tyson is dead. Grover is lost, so if I had to choose between saving you or saving Olympus, Annabeth, I’d burn it all down, just like Luke said Thalia would.”

“You’re not hearing me,” he continued when Annabeth tried to comfort him. “What if we get there and I have to choose between saving Grover and saving camp, or saving Grover and saving you? My flaw isn’t just fatal to me.”

Scobell said the tone was tricky in that scene because, while the line could be read as simply romantic, it was more so about Percy being afraid of himself and how his loyalty and defensiveness, paired with his impulsiveness, could cause destruction that could hurt the people he loves.

Without giving away any spoilers, Scobell, Jeffries, Simhadri, and Charlie Bushnell tease their Percy Jackson Season 3 scenes where the tone was hardest to land.

Walker Scobell

For Scobell, the toughest scene to land was one with Annabeth and Grover.

Disney/David Bukach

“It was a kind of little happy scene in the middle of a bunch of really horrible things,” Scobell tells TV Insider, basically describing the show in general. “That was another thing that was difficult to land because you can’t forget all of the pressure and what you’ve just been through and what you’re about to do, but at the same time, you’ve got to feel pretty happy and excited.”

“Those are always the scenes that are difficult because every single take, it’s like you’ll do a take and they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, but just remember you’re in danger.’ And then you’ll do the next take and they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, but just remember that you’re happy,’ he continues. “It’s this constant back and forth, and then it ends up just being spliced together in a way that makes it work or they’ll add some kind of music that makes it work, but it’s just a confusing thing to get your brain into.”

Leah Sava Jeffries

Jeffries says that a lot of Annabeth scenes this season are giving “I’d do anything to save you,” and that feeling doesn’t just apply to Percy.

Disney/David Bukach

“Not saying that there’s two love interests, but obviously you know how [fans] say [there’s] a little bit of a ‘Lukabeth’ thing. I really, really, really think that Annabeth has a lot of those scenes, but it really depends on who she’s talking to,” Jeffries explains.

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“She could see Luke and she could see the pain. She feels the pain and she tries to be empathetic, so she gives that ‘I’d burn it down’ kind of sensation to Luke as well, but then at the same time, to Thalia as well,” she adds. “She’s like, ‘I would do anything for you. We’re sisters.’ And then also the same thing for Percy.”

“Even though it’s to save the world, she also has a little bit [of a thought] behind her mind of, ‘I literally would do anything for Percy. I love this person with all my heart,'” Jeffries continues, but she notes that she doesn’t necessarily mean this romantically. Whenever Annabeth is doing something to save the world, she’s doing it to make the world a safer place for her friends.

However, Percy and Annabeth are realizing they might have romantic feelings for each other in Season 3, according to executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg (he breaks down the Percabeth timeline here).

Aryan Simhadri

Simhadri says that, during intense scenes, he would try to put on a “cool guy” voice that matched the intensity but might not have always matched Grover.

Disney/David Bukach

“Not to sound conceited, but it was hard not to do the TV whisper cool guy thing, especially in a show like this where the characters are constantly coming up with plans and trying to work around obstacles,” Simhadri says.

“When you’re in a hushed setting and you’re in an intimate scene, you want to do the kind of cool guy, ‘And then we need to do this and then this,'” he says, putting on that cool guy whisper voice in his delivery at the end.

“I would catch myself doing it, and our acting coach, Andrew [Mcilroy], was great about being on top of us to follow our sentences through to the end and really make sure everything landed,” he continues. “I think more than tone for me, that’s always been a big issue. I wanted to make sure everything really landed this season. Hopefully I did.”

Charlie Bushnell

Bushnell says that Luke has a big scene with someone that was important to get right. There is some Luke backstory to be revealed this season, but Bushnell reveals there’s also a reunion coming, although he can’t say with whom.

Disney/David Bukach

“Without saying too much, there’s definitely quite a big reunion between Luke and one of the other characters this season,” Bushnell teases. “There’s so much history there. Trying to balance that with also the intensity and just the circumstances in which they reunite was difficult, but I’m really happy with how it all turned out.”

“I feel like this season is people’s pasts almost coming back to haunt them,” Bushnell reveals. “That’s a recurring theme throughout this season. That was cool to play around with.”

Stay tuned for more exclusives from Percy Jackson Season 3.

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