It’s been a while since we got big news about the Percy Jackson TV series. Based on the Percy Jackson and the Olympians novel series first released back in 2005, the series will tell the story of Percy Jackson, the demigod son of Poseidon who goes to summer camp with other demigods and occasionally saves the world. Luckily for the franchise fans, best-selling author Rick Riordan provides regular updates on his life and projects on his personal blog, and in a recent post the author revealed when production of the series is set to begin.
In the blog post, Riordan revealed he has recently visited Mammoth Studios in Vancouver, which is where the Percy Jackson series will be filmed. Aside from teasing the construction of a massive set for the fantasy series, Riordan also revealed he’ll be back in Vancouver on June 1, which is the date production is set to start, and the author will follow it closely – but, of course, during pandemic times nothing is set in stone, so hopefully all goes as planned.
Riordan also revealed he met with production designer Dan Hannah, who’s in charge of bringing the novels’ concepts and locations to life. As Percy Jackson is a widely successful series, there are several illustrated artworks which Hannah can pull from in order to get inspiration, not to mention the two movies released in 2010 and 2013.
Riordan also shared another piece of important information: he met with eleven-time Emmy nominee director James Bobin in order to evaluate child actors who are auditioning to play the trio of protagonists – Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. Bobin will also direct the pilot episode of Percy Jackson, which will set the tone for the whole series:
“On Saturday, we headed to the Disney Studios in Burbank for some in-person chemistry read auditions for ‘Percy Jackson’. This means we brought together different combinations of young actors we had identified as interesting candidates for the roles of Percy, Annabeth and Grover, and had them read through scenes together to see how they interacted. It was informative and exciting, and though we have come to no decisions yet, the process is moving along well. Seeing these actors taking on the roles in person made me appreciate once again just how talented and capable middle school kids can be when given a chance to shine. They were all amazing. Special shoutout to […] our director James Bobin, who directed the kids through their scene work. I wish I had had a drama teacher like James when I was twelve!”
The original Percy Jackson novels were comprised of five books, which were later expanded into graphic novels and spin-offs. Riordan’s novels have sold over 180 million copies worldwide, and its popularity is undoubtedly big enough for Disney to give the series another shot after its previous botched movie adaptations.
Disney+ is yet to announce a release date for the Percy Jackson series, but with production starting on June 1 we can expect to get a lot of information in the coming months.
via Collider