Filming is well underway for the Disney series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Fans of the book series by author Rick Riordan will have been able to keep up with the ongoing production thanks to the author’s blog. However, this little teaser comes courtesy of one fan, who posted a behind-the-scenes video to Twitter showing the three main characters on set.
The Disney series has gone for a more true to the written word approach, casting The Adam Project star, Walker Scobell, as the titular character, Percy Jackson, a boy who discovers that the Greek gods are not just myth and that he is in fact one of their offspring, a demigod. In the first novel, which the first season will likely be adapting, Percy is accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt, the symbol of his power, and in order to clear his name, he travels across the states with the help of his friends Annabeth, daughter of Athena (Leah Sava Jeffries), and Grover the Satyr (Aryan Simhadri).
Filming for the series began in June, and since the announcement of the actors, fans have been excited to get a glimpse of them in character. One fan, @HeyKarennM posted photos and a video showing the three actors — Scobell, Jeffries, and Simhadri — filming in Vancouver.
The fact that all three are together here suggests this scene is set after Percy learns of his true parentage, as he only meets Annabeth at Camp Half Blood, a camp for demigods. This scene seems to depict the three of them on the hunt for the lightning bolt, all three carrying hefty-looking backpacks thanks to their travels. The inclusion of the cab advertisement ‘Hades Hot Tubs’ is a nice addition here, a hint at what is to come.
Simhadri can be seen walking on the balls of his feet across the road, most likely his way of mimicking the gait of a satyr (a goat-legged creature with a man’s torso), and if you look closely you can also see he has motion capture socks on, where the CGI team will add in his furry legs in post.
This is the second attempt to bring the books to life for the screen, as Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief was adapted for the big screen and a sequel, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, followed a few years later. The movies were not well received by fans of the books thanks to the changes made to the main characters age-wise, showing them to be in their late teens rather than pre-teens as written. This time around, Riordan has praised the trio in his blog updates and seems overly positive as production continues building towards a 2024 release date.