The teens behind Percy Jackson & the Olympians know that they may look a lot older than they did in the first season of the Disney+ action-adventure series. But heading into Percy Jackson season 2, which comes out on Dec. 10, all of the young actors finally felt prepared to carry the full weight of bringing author Rick Riordan’s beloved fantasy novels to life once more.
“We all are more ready to step up to the responsibilities of not only putting on a show of this size, but also the in-universe stakes,” Aryan Simhadri, who plays loyal satyr protector Grover Underwood, tells Teen Vogue on a video call from Vancouver (where the cast is in the middle of shooting season 3). “The stakes are a lot more serious this season for all of us.”
Adapting Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, the first season introduced Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), a misfit pre-teen who discovers that he is the illegitimate son of Poseidon (Toby Stephens) and that all of the Greek myths he grew up learning about are actually true. He initially finds shelter at Camp Half-Blood, a training camp for other demigods, and then embarks on a cross-country quest with his newfound best friends, Grover and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), to find Zeus’ master lightning bolt and to save his mortal mother, Sally (Virgina Kull), from the Underworld.
Season 2 adapts The Sea of Monsters and follows Percy, Annabeth, and his new cyclops half-brother Tyson (Daniel Diemer) as they journey into the Bermuda Triangle to find the Golden Fleece, a magical item that can fix the breached barrier around Camp Half-Blood. Along the way, the new trio join forces with fellow demigod Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn); rescue Grover from the cyclops Polyphemus (Aleks Paunovic); and come face-to-face again with Luke (Charlie Bushnell), their former fellow camper who is now working with the Titan king Kronos to bring down Olympus.
“This is really the angsty season, in my opinion,” Scobell says of his titular protagonist. “A lot of the challenges he faces are about him and his feelings, so I think, if anything, we pulled a little bit from the third book back to the second book, because the third book deals with that a lot.”
“Each season the stakes get a little higher and the color grading gets a little darker, and the storylines become more grounded and gory and intense,” adds Goodjohn, who plays the ruthless daughter of Ares. “I think what is contributing to the scale of the entire show is that as time goes on and as our characters and our audience grow up, things get more real … if you take a look at each person’s arc, there is some kid out there going through the exact same thing.”
The New Trio
After season 1 ended with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover making a pact to reunite at Camp Half-Blood the following summer, season 2 begins with the original trio physically and emotionally separated. Grover has disappeared on his quest to find the Greek god Pan. Annabeth’s first year as a teen in the mortal world has not gone according to plan. And upon reuniting with Percy, Annabeth is dismayed to learn that he has befriended a cyclops — the same kind of monster that claimed the life of her close friend, Thalia Grace (Tamara Smart), years earlier.
As a long-time superfan of the Percy Jackson universe, Diemer feels confident in declaring that the heart of his iteration of Tyson is identical to the one in the books. “You have this big, extremely loving, very innocent, sensitive, young baby cyclops who comes from a world where he is homeless, so there’s a lot of pain in that,” he says. “But he’s the eternal optimist. He’s looking to give the world as much of himself as he can, he’s looking to love as best as he can, and he’s hoping for a family and for that love to be returned.”
When he is first introduced, Tyson has been living with Percy and Sally for a while. “It’s not something that Percy is exactly ecstatic about, but there is a sense of responsibility that Percy has with him that ties them together,” Diemer says. Although he is “excited” about the idea of visiting Camp Half-Blood with Percy, Tyson’s identity as a one-eyed monster immediately leaves him feeling “even more isolated than ever before.”
Instead, Tyson decides to set sail with Percy and Annabeth, playing an integral role on their mission. “We’re leaning into his protector mode in a way that feels slightly different from the book, but I hope the audiences feel it’s more of a three-dimensional building out of Tyson rather than a changing of character,” Diemer says.
Jeffries adds that Annabeth’s attitude towards Tyson changes over the course of the story. “The way Annabeth feels towards Tyson in the beginning is [based] off of her own instincts. The way she feels towards Tyson in the end is [different] because she wants to also make Percy happy, because she loves that Percy has someone that can connect with,” she says. Annabeth ultimately recognizes that Tyson is not just some stranger that she can ask Percy to kick to the curb; Tyson is now Percy’s family. “And that means that if I’m going to be with Percy and fight beside him and do stuff [together] for the rest of our lives, I have to be good with Tyson, because I want to make Percy happy.”
The OTP: Percabeth
Ever since the official trailer for Percy Jackson season 2 dropped on social media, some diehard fans have expressed concern that Scobell and Jeffries’ onscreen chemistry would make the writers accelerate the timeframe that their characters get together in the show — a suggestion that makes Scobell and Jeffries laugh. (Jeffries elaborates more on the fan reactions to Percabeth in her Teen Vogue cover story.) But the executive producers, including Riordan, have maintained that Percy and Annabeth’s slow-burn relationship will follow the timeline set out in the novels.
“The reason why it’s such a slow-burn is because they probably don’t even know how to flirt — and hear me out,” Jeffries says with a giggle. “Annabeth doesn’t know how to, because she’s not even in the mortal world. She probably doesn’t even know what that word means. There’s no [grand plan], like, ‘I’m going to go on the quest with him, because I know in two years I’m going to finally like him.’ No, she’s genuinely like, ‘Okay, I’m fighting for this quest,’ and Percy’s like, ‘I’m here to survive.’ When people talk about ‘Percabeth,’ I always smile and laugh, because it’s a natural thing.”
Scobell adds, “With Annabeth, she’s smart enough to understand her feelings, but she doesn’t deal with that kind of stuff. But with Percy, he just really doesn’t know — at least, that’s how I’ve been playing it. When he first read the books, Scobell actually did not realize that Riordan had been setting up Percy and Annabeth to be endgame. “It was a surprise to me when they got together at the end of the books. It came out of nowhere to me, but apparently, it was in the entire thing!”
While there are little lines of dialogue that appear to hint at the characters’ dynamic in future seasons, Scobell believes Percy is still genuinely unaware of how he is coming across to Annabeth. Part of the struggle for the young actors has been knowing when to lean into that future romance and when to pull back, especially since the writers “like giving the fans these little pieces of the relationship early on,” Scobell says.
“There’s been times where I get the script and I’m like, ‘There’s just no way I can say that. Guys, this is such a season 5 thing.’ Most of the time, they write it out, or I try to take it out. I’ll find a way to make it work, [but] I don’t like doing any of that now, because then you lose all of it in the future,” Scobell says. “It’s also difficult, because they have to write more for us. We look so much older than we did, and us saying the lines that we would’ve said when we were 13 just doesn’t work anymore. One of the things that changes a lot from season 1 to season 2, and especially from season 2 to season 3, is the dialogue. It’s a whole new level every time.”
Avid book readers know that the Sirens scene — in which Annabeth learns her fatal flaw during a near-death encounter with the terrifying sea nymphs — is a pivotal moment in the development of Percy and Annabeth’s relationship, even though it was infamously cut out of the original movie adaptation of The Sea of Monsters a decade ago. Jeffries is reluctant to say anything more about that highly-anticipated scene, which has been adapted in live action here for the first time, apart from the fact that a major change was made while still adhering to the essence of “what the Sirens scene is supposed to be.”
Scobell is a little more forthcoming about that key moment in episode 5. “It definitely leans more into what Annabeth really wants, and it changes a little bit because it’s not necessarily a decision we make [together] anymore for her to hear the sirens,” he says. “I think it pushes us forward towards the island and further along the quest than the book did. In the book, it almost felt like a little bit of a detour, in a good way. But it was almost like we were on the quest to get Grover, and then we ended up deciding to hear the sirens, and it turned into a whole thing. But now, it’s just part of that quest.”
The Friend-Turned-Foe
In the most heartbreaking twist of the season 1 finale, Luke unsuccessfully tried to get Percy to join Kronos’ rebellion and then tried to kill him in the ensuing battle. By the time viewers catch up with him in episode 3, after he poisons Thalia’s tree and jeopardizes the security of Camp Half-Blood, Luke is seen living a very lavish lifestyle aboard the Princess Andromeda, the cruise ship that houses Kronos’ army.
Despite the fact that Luke tries to kill Percy, the other characters — including Luke’s own father, Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda), who appears at the end of episode 2 — still believe Luke can be saved. “But in Percy’s mind, he already tried to kill one of his best friends, Grover, with the [flying] shoes. I feel like the second you try to hurt one of Percy’s friends, you can’t really come back from that the same way that you did before,” Scobell adds. “Percy’s like, ‘He’s changed. He’s bad now,’ and everyone still is holding onto that little glimmer of hope. But at the end, I feel like everyone starts to agree with me a little bit.”
Luke, on the other hand, does not think he is turning on his old friends. “I think the book version of Luke is perfect, but what I love about the show is he’s definitely portrayed as more of a revolutionary,” says Bushnell, who believes Luke still genuinely cares for Percy and Annabeth in particular. “He’s fighting to overthrow this dictatorship, which is the gods. He truly believes that he is in the right in these situations, and he wants to create this better world for all demigods and monsters and creatures. I think people are going to watch this season and be conflicted about Luke, because he makes a lot of very compelling points.”
One of the people who will feel the most conflicted is Annabeth, who is still unable to reconcile the Luke who betrayed the rest of Camp with the kind soul she met as a child. “I think the amount of love for Luke completely takes away the fact that he betrayed her, in her mind. You see that every time when she looks at Luke, it’s like she’s mesmerized by all the memories that they used to have,” Jeffries says. But Annabeth’s denial doesn’t mean that she isn’t hurt: “He’s hurting everyone along the way to get what he wants, so not only is she hurt by what he might’ve done to her, but what he is doing to everyone.”
First-time viewers and long-time readers alike will get new insight into Annabeth’s relationships with Luke and Thalia in flashbacks, which begin in the fourth episode. Those little glimpses of the younger Annabeth — played by Jeffries’ own cousin, Marissa — have now informed how Jeffries has chosen to play her character in the present day.
For Bushnell, Luke’s heel turn has always stemmed from his difficult relationship with his godly father, who abandoned him when he was a baby. “I think a lot of it goes back to trying to maybe prove to his father that he doesn’t need him, and that he’s somebody who can make something of himself,” Bushnell says. “I think a parent leaving you like that is enough to make any kid feel like a failure, and he wants to show his father that he’s not.”
To this day, Bushnell has still yet to meet Lin-Manuel Miranda in person. “But in a lot of ways, he’s a lot more present in my life than Hermes is [in Luke’s],” Bushnell quips. “Even though I haven’t met him, he’ll still text me from time to time. He even will send me Percy-related memes, which is funny.”
The Unexpected Leader
While she was merely positioned as an antagonist to Percy in season 1, Clarisse “goes through this really beautiful journey of discovering what it means to be a leader in her own right,” Goodjohn says. “She learns so much about what it means to be a leader, what it means to be a friend, and what it means to actually accept help from the people around her. It was really therapeutic for me playing her this season because what she was going through and learning wound up being exactly what I was learning and going through in my own life at the same time.”
After overcoming the vicious Stymphalian birds and technically winning the famous chariot race in episode 2, Clarisse is tasked with embarking on a quest with a couple other campers to find the Golden Fleece. But when Annabeth leaves her high and dry to go on an unsanctioned mission with Percy and Tyson, Clarisse decides to venture out on her own. Her godly father, Ares (Adam Copeland), gifts her a giant ironclad warship manned by fallen soldiers that had previously lost their lives in battle — and now owe a debt of service — to him. But Ares clearly does not think his daughter has what it takes to steer the ship through the Sea of Monsters.
“I know her seeing her father and trying to do things his way at the beginning of her quest backfires very, very fast,” Goodjohn notes. “I think that gives her the strength and the confidence to be like, ‘You know what? Screw it. Dad’s not here. He’s not protecting me. He might be watching, but he really doesn’t care about me, so I’m just going to do what I want.’”
What Clarisse doesn’t anticipate, however, is developing an emotional connection with her tight-knit group of voyagers, which will grow to include Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson midway through the season. “I think the big thing for her is that she’s trying to learn how to balance her need for approval and her quest for glory with [this] newfound sympathy that she has for people,” Goodjohn says. Clarisse has generally been very good under pressure, “but the second she starts discovering what it means to really care for people and not just care for her father, that’s when things get difficult.”
The Wedding Dress
While the other characters’ arcs are closely intertwined for much of this season, there is one character who is conspicuously MIA: Grover.
“I’m going to be very frank: I’m a fan of the books first and foremost, and then I’m an actor in Percy Jackson. So part of me didn’t even want Grover to be in the [second season], because I want as much of the main story to make it in as I can,” Simhadri admits. “But the show doesn’t work unless you can see people’s perspectives other than Percy’s. I think they found a great balance between not taking time away from what was developed in the books and also adding things in, and everything escalates so much more.”
During his search for Pan, Grover is kidnapped by the half-blind cyclops Polyphemus. Taking inspiration from Penelope in the Greek epic The Odyssey, Grover pretends to be a female cyclops to avoid getting eaten by Polyphemus, even agreeing to marry him to come up with enough time to form an escape plan.
“There’s a few different versions of wife Grover that we played with,” Simhadri explains. “There’s one version where he’s a super comforting, really great wife, and he’s like, ‘Oh, you’re so strong and you’re so brave, and I’ll cook for you. Just please don’t eat me.’ There’s another one who’s kind of the wife who puts down her husband, and he’s kind of toying with Polyphemus a little bit, but it all comes from a place of fear. And there’s a third one that we went with, which is he’s saying whatever will keep him alive moment to moment. I think all of those kind of come together to make the last one.”
In order to maintain that illusion of a bride-to-be, Grover spends almost the entire season wearing an iconic wedding dress, which Simhadri says the creative team wanted to look like “something that we pulled out of [ship] cargo.”
“We made this beautiful pristine wedding dress and then just tore it up,” he recalls. “They let me walk back and forth from set in it so it would catch the gravel and tear itself and it would get soaked in rainwater, and I would step on the hems to tear up the edges. I would have nosebleeds on set, and I would just bleed on my dress. And there’s a little bit of blood on it, if you look closely, so that dress is very much a part of me.”
The Meeting of the Percys
When he first spoke with Teen Vogue a couple years ago, Scobell revealed that, despite exchanging some direct messages on Instagram, he had yet to meet Logan Lerman — who originated the role of Percy Jackson — in person. But last year, at the Hulu on Disney+ launch event in Los Angeles, the two Percys finally came face-to-face, sending the multi-generational fandom into a frenzy.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve been to events like that, and I’ve asked for Logan Lerman or asked around if he was there, and I never saw him until that event. And they said, ‘Yes, he’s there.’ I went through all the interviews on the red carpet, and the whole time, I was freaking out, because I knew he was inside,” Scobell recalls. “I met him, and he’s everything you think he would be. He’s just such a good guy. He’s a normal dude. Every time I saw him having a conversation with someone — or when he met Aryan and I — he talked to each of us differently, and he was actually listening and talking to us, and it’s just really refreshing to see that.”
Scobell says Lerman also gave him a lot of “great advice,” as a former child actor himself. Some of that advice seems to have already rubbed off on him. As his public profile and his level of responsibility has grown in the last couple of years, Scobell admits that he has had to think twice about his actions for the first time.
“The other day I was running a jet ski, and my friend was on the jet ski, and I was like, ‘I should try to do a backflip on it.’ But I had to think, ‘Maybe I should not try to break my neck because I’m filming in a month,’ which has been really difficult for me to wrap my head around,” he says with a laugh. “When I was younger, there were so many things that I would never take a second to think about. But now I have to think about it, but I never did that before.”
Maybe this is a sign that these young actors really are ready to carry the full weight of Olympus.
