DISNEY Plus’s upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians series has cast Walker Scobell for the lead role.
The series adaptation of the Rick Riordan book series which was greenlit back in January tells the fantastical tale of the titular 12-year-old Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. Now, the modern demigod must trek across America to find it and restore order to Olympus.
Previously, Logan Lerman portrayed the character in the film adaptation which aged the character up to 16. In the books, Percy is 12 years old and the series follows him as he grows up.
Percy is described as a smart and compassionate kid with a sharp sense of humour. He’s always seen himself as an outsider because of how the world sees his ADHD and dyslexia.
Scobell made his film debut in the Netflix film The Adam Project, starring as Adam’s (Ryan Reynolds) younger self. According to Netflix, the film was viewed for over 92 million hours in its debut weekend in March.
The next film Scobell will be starring in is Paramount film’s Secret Headquarters alongside Owen Wilson, which will be out in theatres on August 5.
Riordan has spoken openly about his grievances with the movie adaptations, so now they are righting it by putting Riordan as one of the writers for the series’ pilot alongside Jon Steinberg with James Bobin directing. The series is scheduled to begin production this summer.
The books that were adapted into movies were The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters while the other titles in the series are The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian.
Riordan has also published supplementary books The Demigod Files and The Demigod Diaries.
