SAN DIEGO – Percy Jackson is setting sail for a second season of monstrous adventure, with some new blood coming along for the voyage.
A Comic-Con panel for the Disney+ series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” premiered a Season 2 teaser that featured a ton of action and the first look at Tyson, the fan-favorite cyclops from Rick Riordan’s book series. In a video message, Riordan announced the new season will premiere on Disney+ December 10.
This next chapter finds Percy (Walker Scobell), the son of sea god Poseidon, embarking on a quest to the Sea of Monsters to find his kidnapped best friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri). He’s also seeking the Golden Fleece – a mystical artifact that can heal anything and anyone – in order to save his home, Camp Half-Blood, from the villainous likes of Luke (Charlie Bushnell) and Titan Kronos (Nick Boraine).
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While they’re on the march to take down Olympus, Percy gets help on his odyssey from pals Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn) as well as his half-brother Tyson (Daniel Diemer).
Riordan also announced a few young Season 3 newcomers. Levi Chrisopulos and Olive Abercrombie will play Nico di Angelo and his sister Bianca, the demigod children of Hades (Jay Duplass).
The first season was “an American road trip,” said executive producer Jon Steinberg, and in Season 2, “you are in the fantasy, and magic is in every direction. Anything is possible, and it’s an adventure form start to finish.” He also teased a chariot race track built for a “massive” sequence that was “the biggest thing we’ve ever shot, practically.”
That moment also impressed Timothy Simons, who plays Camp Half-Blood activities director Tantalus. “I’m used to being on shabby comedies,” said the “Veep” and “Nobody Wants This” actor. “I’ve never been on anything that had a fire budget.” Simons also got to pet and feed a horse: “It was an incredible day.”
Cast members revealed where their characters are heading in the Season 2. Grover has “never been alone,” Simhadri said, and when he’s captured, it’s the first time “he doesn’t have people to rely on. He has to step up and fend for himself, and that’s something we’ve never seen from him.”
Jeffries said Annabeth, the child of Athena who was rather stoic in the first season, will “be vulnerable and open up” to Percy on their journey. And Goodjohn touted a larger role for Clarisse, the daughter of god of war Ares. While she’s “a one-dimensional bully” in the book series, Goodjohn said that the new season digs into the “traumatic experiences” that made Clarisse who she is, in a “beautiful arc.”
As a newcomer, Diemer had “the time of my life” playing the powerful, innocent and deeply lovable Tyson. Coming in as a fan who grew up on Riordan’s books, “the whole idea was to create a cyclops baby with a huge heart but dealing with the complexity of his past.”
Simhadri admitted one of his favorite bits in Season 2 involves him wearing a wedding dress, while Scobell and Diemer reminisced about doing the iconic “Titanic” scene while filming on an ironclad, with Scobell holding his co-star’s waist while Diemer flung his arms out, Kate Winslet-style. “It brought us closer,” Scobell quipped.
Diemer replied: “Very different from the brotherly relationship. It was nice.”
There were some big changes during the long break between seasons (the first ended in January 2024). Simhadri joked he “grew a few feet,” while Scobell added, “It’s nice to take a lot of time away and grow and experience real life again and then come back and film.”
Scobell, 16, still has to attend school during production. He remembers one day filming a big battle scene where he was the only actor who needed to go to class. “Everyone would be fighting, and there were all these cries for help and pain. And in my mind, I’d be trying to kill this dude,” he recalled. “I’d be in school (later) and I’d still hear that, people begging for their life. It’s a weird thing to switch off.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ teases ‘massive’ Season 2
