20th Television is currently filming a brand new series for Disney+, “Percy Jackson And The Olympians”, which tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. With help from his friends Grover and Annabeth, Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus.

In this new series, Walker Scobell will be playing the title role of Percy Jackson, with Aryan Simhadri (Disney’s “Spin”) and Leah Sava Jeffries (“Empire”) playing Percy’s friends Grover and Annabeth. The series will also star Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, Dior Goodjohn, Olivea Morton, Charlie Bushnell, Jason Mantzoukas, Megan Mullally, and Timm Sharp.

Filming is currently underway in Vancouver, Canada, and this weekend, Percy Jackson creator, Rick Riordan, who is also an executive producer on the show, has shared an update on how the filming is progressing on the new Disney+ series.

Filming continues to go very well. Day to day, we don’t necessarily film in strict chronological order. If, for instance, there are scenes that happen on a city street in two different episodes, we may film them at the same time because it is more efficient that way. But in general, we have now covered most of the principal photography for ‘block one,’ which has been overseen by our fearless directorial leader James Bobin. While we continue filming the subsequent episodes under the talented and able direction of Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson, James will now retreat into his Fortress of Solitude and begin creating a director’s cut for the work he has done so far. Everything already looks so good in the raw footage, I can’t imagine how great it will be when James gets done choosing his favorite shots and putting them all together. Then the producers (including me) will do our revisions. Then the studio will put in their input. So there is a long way to go. But the good news is we are on schedule. Given the massively ambitious scale of this show, that is no small accomplishment. Kudos once again to our incredible show-runners Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz.

Rick Riordan continued to explain where they are in terms of filming:

How much Percy content have we covered? Put it this way: If you were following along in the book, we have pretty much filmed through chapter nine in The Lightning Thief. That’s a big chunk of the story, but there is a massive amount of fun and games still to come! And yes, the filming has followed the book story very closely, almost as if the author were involved himself! Sure, there are small tweaks and changes here and there, which were mutually agreed upon, but the biggest difference is the ‘value added.’ You will get peeks at character backstory, foreshadowing Easter eggs of things to come, and nuances in Percy’s family history that I think you will love. The neat thing about revisiting this tale, almost twenty years after I first wrote it, is that I get to address some of the questions that fans have asked me over the years: “What does this mean?” “Why does this happen the way it does?” “What would happen if —?” It’s been really satisfying and fun.

The new Disney+ series is going to be filming until later in the year and isn’t expected to arrive on Disney+ until possibly 2024, since the series will require lots of special effects.  Hopefully, at the upcoming D23 Expo, we might be treated to a sneak peek or a sizzle reel, but with so much of the series still to record, they might hold off showing anything.

Are you looking forward to the new “Percy Jackson” Disney+ series?

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts