Walker Scobell’s family had a big question about his series, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”: When’s the second season coming out?
Writers and actors strikes slowed the process; special effects gave the first season a long gestation period. And now, as the second season is about to premiere, Scobell says he can happily tell relatives a third is on the way and probably won’t take two or more years to appear.
What’s more, Season 2 — based on “The Sea of Monsters” — gives supporting characters more screen time. Daniel Diemer gets considerable attention as Percy’s half-brother, Tyson, who also happens to be a cyclops.
“He fit right in,” Scobell says. “The interesting thing about this season is there’s more time for others. In the first season, it was Leah and Aryan and me all the time.”
Now, the original three — Scobell’s Percy, Leah Jeffries’ Annabeth and Aryan Simhadri’s Grover — are separated. Percy befriends Charlie Bushnell’s Luke and Dior Goodjohn’s Clarisse, which creates another team. All of them are at Camp Half-Blood where the forces of Kronos are threatening them and Grover is missing. To solve their problems, the students need to venture into the Sea of Monsters to find the Golden Fleece.
Because so many scenes take place in the sea, “it’s gloomy and gray and all the sheets around us mimic the sky, so we didn’t have to fake much,” says Goodjohn. “We got really lucky. Almost everything was practical.”
Chariot scenes (which were shot with actual chariots) “were awesome,” she says.
While many of the mythological characters are dressed in wild costumes, it’s fun to “goof around with them” during breaks, Bushnell says. “Some takes they’d just improvise funny lines and then they look at you and throw a fireball at you.”
To make sure they’re pronouncing the gods’ names correctly, Scobell and company work with their acting coach. “When we can’t find the right pronunciation, we’ll talk to Rick (Riordan, the books’ author and series executive producer) and ask him.”
Bushnell, for example, wasn’t sure where the emphasis belonged in his character’s last name, Castellan.
“I’d been saying it one way forever and then I saw a video of Rick saying it and decided to go that way. He created this world. He created these characters. He’s the guy.”
While Simhadri isn’t with the others during most of the second season, he has gotten the “why has it taken so long?” question quite a few times.
“It makes me happy that fans want to see more because I want to see more,” he says. “I’m still with (the other cast members) when they’re filming.”
And the future? There shouldn’t be a long break between seasons, Jeffries says. “It’ll still take time … but it’ll be kicking out a lot faster.”
The second season of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is airing now on Disney+ and Hulu, nearly two years after the series premiered.
