Disney recently ordered a season’s worth of episodes based on author Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians books, about an affable young kid who learns he’s actually the son of the Greek god Poseidon, the god of the ocean, and goes to train at a camp for other demigods. (These books came out in the wake of Harry Potter mania, so magic school stories were very popular.) And now, Riordan himself has revealed who will be playing the title role: The Adam Project veteran Walker Scobell!
“Walker Scobell is an incredibly talented young man who blew us away with his audition tapes for the role of Percy,” Riordan wrote on his website. “Many of you recently discovered how great Walker is when you watched his movie The Adam Project, in which Walker lit up the screen as a younger version of Ryan Reynolds’ character. We were fortunate enough to audition Walker months before that movie came out, but the film only confirmed what we already knew about his talent. It was obvious to me and the rest of the team that Walker had the perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark and heroism to embody our hero Percy Jackson.”
Percy Jackson returns to the screen, this time on TV
The first two Percy Jackson books were previously adapted as movies in the 2010s, and they were…well, I guess they could have been worse, but they weren’t great. Hopefully this second bite of the apple will prove more sweet.
As for Scobell, between playing young Ryan Reynolds and this, he’s quickly becoming a star. Way for Disney+ to get in on the ground floor.
There’s no release date for the Percy Jackson show yet, but with casting officially underway, we’ll likely hear more before too long.
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