Percy Jackson and the Olympians (TV series)


Percy Jackson and the Olympians is an American fantasy adventure television series created by Rick Riordan and Jonathan E. Steinberg for streaming service Disney+, based on the book series of the same name by Riordan. Walker Scobell stars as the title character, alongside Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase and Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood.
Development on the series began in May 2020, following a pitch by Riordan to Disney Branded Television. Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz were announced as showrunners in July 2021, with James Bobin hired to direct the first episode in October. Scobell was cast in the lead role in January 2022, with Jeffries and Simhadri joining the cast in May. Filming takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiered on December 19, 2023, with the first two episodes of the first season. The other six episodes were released weekly through January 30, 2024. The first season is based on the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief. The series was renewed for a second season in February 2024, based on the second book, The Sea of Monsters. The second season premiered on December 10, 2025, with its first two episodes on both Disney+ and Hulu. In March 2025, ahead of the second season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season, which is set to adapt the third book, The Titan's Curse. The series has received positive reviews from critics, with praise towards its worldbuilding, faithfulness to the source material, and performances. It won eight of the sixteen Children's and Family Emmy Awards for which it was nominated, including Outstanding Young Teen Series and awards for writing and directing.

Premise

In the first season, twelve-year-old demigod Percy Jackson is accused by the Greek god Zeus of stealing his thunderbolt and races to find it and restore order to Olympus.
In the second season, Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood a year later, where he learns that it is under threat from the forces of Kronos and Grover has gone missing, and must venture into the Sea of Monsters to find the Golden Fleece.

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

  • Megan Mullally as Alecto / Mrs. Dodds, Percy's stern mathematics teacher who secretly serves the god Hades as one of the three Furies
  • Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Percy's selfless mother
  • Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano, Sally's husband and Percy's stepfather. Rick Riordan's wife and executive producer Rebecca Riordan stated that his abusive behavior, present in the book, was toned down for the show as its cruelty would be more "triggering and difficult to watch" on screen than on the page, and "this isn't supposed to be a horror show".
  • Glynn Turman as Chiron / Mr. Brunner, a centaur and Activities Director of Camp Half-Blood. While the character mainly uses an enchanted wheelchair to disguise himself among humans, the character has a disability in the form of a brace in his left hind leg as a war injury. The creators made this change to address his disability, though they noted it would be "just a detail" during the first season.
  • Nick Boraine as Kronos, the King of the Titans who appears as a voice in Percy's dreams
  • Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus / Mr. D, the god of wine and curmudgeonly camp director of Camp Half-Blood. He is in this position as punishment from Zeus for chasing an off-limits nymph and has to substitute soda when he is also not allowed to have any wine.
  • Adam Copeland as Ares, the arrogant and daring god of war
  • Timothy Simons as King Tantalus, a spirit from the Fields of Punishment, a son of Zeus, and the interim Activities Director of Camp Half-Blood cursed with eternal hunger and thirst ever since he revealed the Olympians' secrets revolving around their nectar and ambrosia and cooked his son Pelops to serve as food to the Olympians
  • Beatrice Kitsos as Alison Simms, a daughter of Apollo and graduate demigod from Camp Half-Blood who lives in the human world and sides with Kronos' army. She is an original character created for the series.
  • Andrew Alvarez and Kevin Chacon as Chris Rodriguez, a son of Hermes and Luke's half-brother. Alvarez was recast as the rogue demigod Theo of Kronos' army in the second season.
  • Tamara Smart as Thalia Grace, the powerful and rebellious daughter of Zeus who was turned into a tree by her father after sacrificing herself to save Annabeth, Luke, and Grover

Guest

Series author Rick Riordan makes cameo appearances in the first season as a teacher in the headmasters' office at Yancy Academy and as a statue at Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium.

Episodes

Season 3

James Bobin directed the first two episodes from the season.

Production

Development

In November 2018, Rick Riordan stated that he believed he would have no creative control over a reboot of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians novel series by The Walt Disney Company if it were to happen, much like his experience with the film series with 20th Century Fox. In December 2019, Riordan pitched an adaptation of the novels to Disney, which had Acquisition of [21st Century Fox by Disney|acquired Fox] in March of that year. By May 2020, a Disney+ series based on Percy Jackson was in the works, with the first season set to adapt the first book in the series, The Lightning Thief. Riordan revealed in March 2021 that searches for the series' directors and cast was underway, with James Bobin being announced as the pilot episode's director in October. Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz were also announced as showrunners in July.
The series was greenlit by Disney Branded Television in January 2022, with 20th Television and the Gotham Group producing the project. Steinberg, Shotz, Bobin, and Riordan were announced as executive producers alongside Riordan's wife Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engström, Jet Wilkinson, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D. J. Goldberg. At the D23 Expo in September, Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson were revealed to be executive producing the series as well. The same month, Riordan revealed that Engström would direct the third and fourth episodes while Wilkinson would direct the fifth and sixth. The series was reportedly made with a budget of $12 to 15 million per episode.
In February 2024, Disney+ renewed the series for a second season, which will adapt the second book, The Sea of Monsters. In April 2024, Albert Kim was announced as a new executive producer starting with the second season. The series was renewed for a third season in March 2025, which will adapt the third book, The Titan's Curse, set to premiere in 2026.

Writing

Drafts of the pilot episode were being reviewed by March 2021. In April 2021, it was announced that Steinberg would serve as co-writer and executive producer of the pilot alongside Riordan. The same day, Monica Owusu-Breen, Daphne Olive, Stewart Strandberg, Zoë Neary, Joe Tracz, and Xavier Stiles joined as writers. Each season of the series will adapt one installment of the book series, with the first season being an adaptation of The Lightning Thief. There are also plans to adapt additional material within the franchise for the series. In addition to writing the pilot, Riordan and co-showrunner Steinberg created a series bible for the show, as well as planning the plot for the first season and creating ideas for potential future seasons. The first season consists of eight episodes.
Writing for the second season had begun by March 2023. Plans for future seasons include a further exploration of Chiron's disability. Writing for the third season had begun by late February 2025.

Casting

Preliminary casting began in April 2021. In January 2022, Walker Scobell was cast in the lead role as Percy Jackson, with this being announced in April. The next month, it was announced that Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri would respectively portray Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, two close friends of Percy. Jeffries' casting received online backlash due to Annabeth not being depicted as black in the novels, which Riordan claimed was racism, and stated, "Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true." Logan Lerman, who played Percy in the film series, praised the casting of Scobell, Jeffries and Simhadri in their roles.
In June, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally, and Timm Sharp were announced to be appearing in recurring capacities as Sally Jackson, Chiron, Dionysus, Alecto, and Gabe Ugliano, respectively. The same month, Dior Goodjohn and Charlie Bushnell joined the cast in recurring roles as Clarisse La Rue and Luke Castellan, respectively, while Olivea Morton was announced to portray Nancy Bobofit in a guest role. Pro wrestler Adam Copeland was cast in the recurring role of Ares in October, while Suzanne Cryer and Jessica Parker Kennedy were cast in the guest roles of Echidna and Medusa, respectively. In November 2022, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jay Duplass, and Timothy Omundson were announced to guest-star as Hermes, Hades, and Hephaestus, respectively; as were Lance Reddick and Toby Stephens in January 2023, announced to portray Zeus and Poseidon, respectively. Jason Gray-Stanford was cast in an undisclosed role in March 2023, later revealed to be Maron.
On July 25, Daniel Diemer was announced as the actor portraying Tyson during San Diego Comic-Con. On August 10, Sandra Bernhard, Kristen Schaal, and Margaret Cho were announced to be portraying the Gray Sisters during D23 Expo, with each of them portraying Anger, Tempest and Wasp, respectively. On August 15, Timothy Simons was announced as the actor for Tantalus. On September 23, Tamara Smart was revealed to be playing Thalia Grace. On November 10, the actress for Athena was revealed to be Andra Day during D23 Brazil. On November 25, Courtney B. Vance was announced as the replacement actor for Zeus, following Reddick's death in March 2023. On December 20, Rosemarie DeWitt, Aleks Paunovic, Beatrice Kitsos, and Kevin Chacon were announced in guest roles as C.C., Polyphemus, Alison Simms, and Chris Rodriguez respectively.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2025, it was announced that Levi Chrisopulos and Olive Abercrombie were cast as Nico di Angelo and Bianca di Angelo, respectively, the children of Hades. On an interview, Riordan confirmed that they were already in talks to cast Atlas, the season's villain. On August 21, 2025, Dafne Keen and Saara Chaudry were announced as the actresses for Artemis and Zoë Nightshade. On October 15, 2025, Kate McKinnon was revealed to be portraying Aphrodite. On December 22, Holt McCallany, David Costabile, and Jesse L. Martin were announced to be the actors portraying Atlas, Dr. Thorn, and Frederick Chase respectively.

Filming

for the first season began on June 2, 2022, in Vancouver, British Columbia, under the working title Mink Golden, and concluded on February 2, 2023. Sound stage filming took place at Mammoth Studios in Burnaby. The series utilized an LED stage powered by Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft visual effects technology. Filming of scenes set in Camp Half-Blood was done in Minaty Bay and Aldergrove, Langley. Scenes at Yancy Academy were filmed at Hycroft Manor. Westminster Pier Park in New Westminster and Simon Fraser University were the filming locations for the Gateway Arch.
Principal photography for the second season began on August 1, 2024, in Vancouver and concluded on January 31, 2025. Filming for the duel between Percy and Clarisse was done at Spanish Banks between September 19 and 20. Additional location filming for the scenes on Polyphemus' island took place in Osoyoos and the Okanagan Valley. Scenes set in Port Jefferson, New York, were filmed in Steveston, British Columbia.
Pre-production for the third season took place in July 2025. Principal photography began on August 7 in Vancouver and is set to conclude in March 2026.

Design

serves as the production designer. Tish Monaghan serves as the costume designer for the first season. Catherine Adair serves as the costume designer for the second season.

Music

By October 2023, Bear McCreary had been writing music for the series, after previously working with Steinberg and Shotz in the series Human Target, Black Sails and See. Members of the music company Sparks & Shadows, which McCreary was a co-founder of, were involved. The score for the first season was released digitally by Hollywood Records on December 22, with Sparks & Shadows credited as composer and McCreary credited with writing the themes. The score for the second season was released digitally by Hollywood Records on December 18, 2025.

Marketing

A teaser for the series was revealed during the D23 Expo in September 2022. Rotem Rusak of Nerdist highlighted how the teaser featured the opening lines of The Lightning Thief, while Kendall Myers of Collider noted the teaser's dark tone. A second teaser trailer for the first season was released on September 19, 2023. The trailer was released on November 16 and was viewed 84.3 million times in the first 10 days across all social media platforms.
The first teaser for the second season was revealed during the D23 Expo in August 2024. A second teaser trailer for the season was released on July 24, 2025, at San Diego Comic-Con. The trailer was released on November 6. The trailer was viewed 135.9 million times in the first 10 days across all social media platforms; a 60% increase compared to the trailer for the first season in the same timeframe. A special recap crossover with Phineas and Ferb, titled Phineas and Ferb Recap: Percy Jackson, was released on December 5, 2025.
With the end of the second season, the episode finale offered a first look at the third season, featuring Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase dancing together.

Release

While the first season was initially expected in early 2024, Hulu announced episodes would be available to stream beginning December 20, 2023. The first season premiered on Disney+ with two episodes on December 19, a day earlier than previously scheduled. A red carpet premiere event was held in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 13 and at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on December 16. Eight episodes were released weekly until January 30, 2024. The season made its linear broadcast debut on Disney Channel on May 2, 2025.
The second season premiered on December 10, 2025, on Disney+ and Hulu, with its two first episodes, while remaining episodes were released on a weekly basis up until the season finale on January 21, 2026. A red carpet premiere event was held in Los Angeles at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 3, at Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo on December 7, at Picturehouse Central in London on December 10, at the Teatro Calderón in Madrid on December 13, and at the Paley Center for Media in New York City on December 17.
The third season is set to premiere in 2026.

Reception

Viewership

In December 2023, Disney announced that 13.3 million viewers watched the premiere episode of Percy Jackson and the Olympians within its first six days on Disney+ and Hulu. Analytics company Samba TV, which gathers viewership data from certain smart TVs and content providers, reported that 898,000 U.S. households watched the first episode on Disney+ during the same period, noting that Gen Z households were overrepresented among viewers by 10%. In January 2024, Disney announced that the episode had been viewed by 26.2 million viewers after three weeks. The second through fifth episodes each attracted at least 10 million viewers within seven days of release. Overall, Percy Jackson and the Olympians accumulated 110 million hours streamed across Disney+ and Hulu during its first seven weeks. Through May 10, 2024, the first season was the most watched Disney+ original series with 23.3% of audience viewership. Luminate, which gathers viewership data from smart TVs in the U.S., reported that by the end of 2024 the first season remained Disney+'s most-watched original series of the year, with 3.07 billion minutes viewed domestically between December 29, 2023, and December 31, 2024. Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the more than 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, calculated that Percy Jackson and the Olympians was the most-streamed original television in the U.S from the week ending January 28 through the week ending February 4, 2024. The series remained within the top ten through the week ending February 18, 2024.
Streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, which monitors daily updated VOD charts and streaming ratings across the globe, reported that the second season became the most popular show on Disney+ both domestically and internationally within two days of the season premiere. On December 15, 2025, Disney+ Brasil announced that viewership for the second season's premiere was doubled compared to the first season's. Brazil also had the largest international viewing audience for the show with the second season among the ten most watched series for Disney+ in the country for 2025. Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on certain U.S. television screens, reported that Percy Jackson and the Olympians generated 508 million minutes of watch time from December 8–14, fifty-two percent of which were for season two. The following week, between December 15–21, the series recorded 410 million minutes of viewing time. From December 22–28, Percy Jackson and the Olympians recorded 436 million minutes of watch time. Between December 29 and January 4, the series garnered 574 million minutes of watch time.

Critical response

For the first season, on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 65 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A faithful adaptation of Rick Riordan's novels, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a lovingly realized odyssey through adolescence and myth." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Nicole Drum of ComicBook.com wrote "Some of the best casting ever in a television series, fantastic performances, and even the magic of the visuals and world-building, the series is about as perfect a television adaptation as you can get, as if it's been favored by the gods themselves." Matthew Creith of TheWrap praised the writing, describing it as "quick-witted, the action is stellar, and making Percy's journey an episodic tale helps to propel the young character forward in exciting directions." Kathryn Porter of Paste wrote, "From the casting to the writing to the production design, we get the adaptation of The Lightning Thief that we have been wanting for over a decade to see, and there is nowhere to go but up." Aramide Tinubu of Variety wrote, "The series depicts a genuinely inclusive world, showcasing storylines and characters that will captivate fans for the next decade. At long last, Riordan's work has been given the extensive visual adaptation it deserves."
On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds an approval rating of 100% based on 36 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus states, "Taking its young heroes to new seas, Percy Jackson and the Olympians grows bigger and better, bringing us all along for a new glorious adventure." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Other media

In January 2024, Disney+ announced the behind-the-scenes documentary A Hero's Journey: The Making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premiered alongside the first-season finale on January 30, 2024. A Fortnite island featuring the show's characters entitled Percy Jackson: Siege of Monsters launched on December 9, 2025. Disney Entertainment Television released a companion video podcast for the second season through Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, and various podcast platforms alongside each episode release.