Happy Birthday seaweed brain! In honor of Percy Jackson’s canonical birthday, Disney+ has finally released a full teaser trailer and set a premiere date for the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” TV series based on Rick Riordan’s books.
Though the footage doesn’t reveal much, it does show Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) in action, set off on a quest to retrieve Zeus’ lightning bolt, which Percy’s been accused of stealing.
We see glimpses of some of the gods and creatures they’ll meet on the way, including Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy) and the minotaur which, in the books, Percy and his mother encounter on their way to Camp Half-Blood.
You can watch the full “Percy Jackson” teaser trailer in the video above.
In addition to Scobell, Sava Jeffries (“Annabeth Chase”), and Simhadri, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is set to feature some huge guest stars, including Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, Megan Mullally as Mrs. Dodds, Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus — aka “Mr. D” — the late Lance Reddick as Zeus, Timothy Omundson as Hephaestus, and more.
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“Percy Jackson” creator and author Rick Riordan was closely involved in creating this series, writing the first two episodes alongside Jon Steinberg, who is showrunner with Dan Shotz.
According to Riordan, the plan for the series is to focus on just “The Lightning Thief” for the first season, and then get into the other five books in later seasons.
“It’s going to be, hopefully, one season for every book, which gives us time to do justice to the entire story, as opposed to a movie where you have to make some cuts,” Riordan told TheWrap during D23 Expo in September.
Steinberg and Shotz serve as executive producers alongside Rick Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Bert Salke, The Gotham Group’s Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg, James Bobin, Jim Rowe, Monica Owusu-Breen, Anders Engström and Jet Wilkinson.
Will fans see any familiar faces from the movies pop up? It’s unlikely. In 2021, Alexandra Daddario, who played Annabeth in both “Percy Jackson” films, shot down the idea.
“I am so excited for the kids that are going to be cast in that and how they’ll inspire a new generation of young women. Like it’s so cool, Annabeth is a really inspiring character to people,” she told TheWrap on the “UnWrapped” podcast. “But no, I don’t know anything about it beyond that, and I shouldn’t! I was just the girl in the movie.”
“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” will premiere on December 20, 2023 on Disney+.
