I Genuinely Can't Watch The First Four Episodes Of "Percy Jackson" The Same Way After Reading These BTS Facts

While there are a few changes from The Lightning Thief book in the Percy Jackson show, Rick Riordan teases that one of his favorites is getting to see a flashback to a Sally Jackson and Poseidon conversation that is "so heartwarming and so tender."

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🚨 There are MAJOR spoilers ahead for the first four episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians! 🚨

1. First, the casting process for Percy Jackson and the Olympians was "extensive." There was an open casting call, and they saw "thousands and thousands of tapes" of "great young actors." Rick Riordan explained that they went into it "without any sort of guidelines or restrictions" on what type of actors they were looking for. He just wanted to make sure they embodied his characters perfectly.

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"The only real thing I was interested in was, Can we find actors who embody the character, the personality, the energy of the young heroes that they're playing? Where's the voice? Where's the humor? Where's the chemistry?" Rick explained. "So, that was the challenge. And it became pretty clear when we were watching Walker [Scobell], Aryan [Simhadri], and Leah [Sava Jeffries] do their auditions, reading the actual lines from the scripts that they had exactly that. They embodied the way I imagine these characters sounding and acting in my head when I write the Percy Jackson books."

2. When Walker began acting, his dad apparently asked him what his dream role would be, and he said Percy Jackson. He's a big fan of the books and, according to Rick, he's read the series "seven times now."

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Rick recalled, "Walker really is a fan of the books. He had been reading them since he was a little guy. He told me recently that since I'd seem him last, he's read the book series again. He's a super fan. One of the first questions his dad asked him when he got into acting apparently was, 'What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?' And the first thing he said was, 'I want to be Percy Jackson.' And that never wavered. So, he came into it with that kind of energy and commitment."

3. Walker was cast as Percy Jackson before The Adam Project was released in 2022, where he portrays a younger version of Ryan Reynolds's character.

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Rick said, "We were aware that Walker was doing that. We knew that he had done other work. But, we had not seen The Adam Project or anything else prior. All that did, when we saw The Adam Project, was just confirm that we'd made the right call."

4. Walker, Leah, and Aryan did chemistry tests with each other before their casting was finalized. Rick said it was important that they found three young actors who you really believed could become best friends and would do anything for each other.

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"It's one thing to find a great actor, it's another thing to find THREE great actors that work well together," Rick began. "So it was important that they had that, you know, sort of team building experience, and that they could embody what it is to be a trio that really becomes a team over the course of the quest."

5. When it came to the incredible adult actors that appear throughout Season 1, like Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas, Glynn Turman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Toby Stephens, Lance Reddick, and more, Rick explained it was similar to casting the young actors: There were no preconceived ideas for who should play each role, but rather looking for the actors who brought the characters to life the best.

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"I didn't really have any particular actor in mind for any particular part. People often ask me if I 'dream cast' my own books, and no, I never do. I just went into the process, looking at the tapes that came in, seeing the way that the actors read their lines," Rick explained. "We were just very fortunate that a lot of the actors who came to this project came to it for sort of the same reason Walker did, that they loved the books and had a personal connection. Many of our adult actors have children who have read the books. Their children were the ones who were saying, 'Oh, yes, you have to do this.' So there's a real personal commitment to it that they want to do a good job not only because they're professionals, but because they love the material and they want to do right by their own families."

6. One of the most important things for the Percy Jackson writers for the first episode was making sure Percy and Sally's relationship had time to be established so the audience felt how monumental the loss of Sally is for Percy. "She's a mother figure for so many fans of the series. So we needed to honor that," Rick explained.

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"We needed to ground that relationship very quickly and very powerfully because then we will not see Sally for quite a while. She needs to be a presence that is still with us," Rick began. "In the book, that's a little easier because we're in Percy's POV. And we can hear him thinking about her and remembering her. So she's a presence that is easier to establish in a book. Whereas on the screen, you really need to see her. So that's why she got a lot of great screen time. Virginia [Kull] is amazing. She's incredible. And again, she has kids that are fans. Many times she said to me, 'Rick, are you happy? Is there anything you need me to do to make this character better?' And I said, 'You're doing it perfectly. Just keep doing what you're doing.'"

7. Rick didn't know that Olivia Rodrigo was a fan of the Percy Jackson books prior to her song "Logical" being featured in Episode 1 when Sally is sitting in the rain. But, he's since found out she's a fan, and he called it "a great honor."

oh my god totally. maybe one day I’ll post all the cringe Percy Jackson songs I wrote.

— Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) April 10, 2020

Twitter: @oliviarodrigo / Via x.com

Speaking about the incredible "Logical" needle drop in Episode 1, Rick said, "I can't take any credit for the music selections. We have a whole team that does that. That's not my forte, and I wouldn't know where to start. I wasn't aware that they were going to pick that song. But, I'm so glad they did. Those are the kind of things that even surprise me. It's also a tribute to the way that a television show is put together. That it's not just my vision. It is a team effort, a team sport, and you have to let everyone else who's involved do what they're best at and bring their artistic vision to it as well."

8. Throughout Season 1, the writers made sure to thread in little hints about future characters and storylines that Percy Jackson book fans will pick up on, like Sally seemingly making a reference to Nico di Angelo in Episode 1 and Grover talking about Pan in Episode 4.

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Rick explained, "That was the advantage of having the books as a guideline and as a blueprint because, obviously, I know the five book arc, and writers in the room also were familiar with it and knew where we are potentially going. So we had a roadmap that was very clear. Even though we might take different stops here or there or pay more attention to one scene than another scene, we all had the final goal in mind. If, god willing, we get to do five seasons and show the entire Percy Jackson story, we were able to make sure that we had seeded in those things in the narrative that would pay off in later seasons. It was very satisfying to be able to do that. I'm a plotter. I like a good well-constructed story. So it was nice to be able to follow the books in that way."

9. Rick considers Episode 2 "one of the most challenging" to work on because they had to cover so much ground, in terms of introducing Camp Half-Blood, a lot of new characters, the quest, and more.

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He said, "We have to get Percy to camp, introduce you to camp, introduce a whole bunch of characters, make you fall in love with all of them, and then turn it on its head and send Percy right out the door again, on his quest. So it was a lot to get that in. It was a very challenging episode."

10. The level of detail that went into each cabin at Camp Half-Blood was extensive. While you can't see everything while watching the episode, Rick loved that in the Hermes cabin, "There was a Mythomagic card game spread out on one of the bunks. There was graffiti carved into the side of the bunk beds."

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Speaking about the attention to detail at Camp Half-Blood, Rick said, "Our production designer Dan Hennah did a superb job rendering images of what he thought it would look like and what the big house would look like, what the cabins might be. We had a lot of conversations, and he just did an amazing job. I thought I was prepared to see it for the first time because I'd seen the drawings and the mock-ups and all of that. But then when Becky [Riordan] and I walked on set the day that they were filming at camp for the first time, we sort of came over this hill, then you walk into the woods, and it opened up, and there was Camp Half-Blood. With the ponds and the torches and the cabins, and it was unreal. It was just incredible."

11. In order to make Camp Half-Blood look absolutely perfect, it wasn't filmed in just one location. The team made sure they found "the perfect beach and the perfect woods" in various locations so that camp would be just as book readers had envisioned it.

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Rick explained, "The neat thing about it is that camp was sort of an amalgamation of many different sites. We didn't shoot every piece of Camp Half-Blood at the same location. There might be some parts of camp that are an hour away from this camp. So what you're seeing is the perfect version of camp, put together from a whole lot of different locations."

12. It took weeks to prepare and then film the capture the flag game from Episode 2 in order to make sure it was just right. Rick said the kids "were fighting with the swords over and over and over again to get just the right shot," and Walker and his stunt double had to perform Percy's tumble down the cliff several times.

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"It's such a critical and formative scene in the Percy Jackson story, that it was wonderful to see it come to life. It was incredible. It was probably better than I had imagined," Rick began. "Just because, again, it involved the work of dozens, if not hundreds, of creative minds, not just me. So it was better than one person could have rendered. When you watch the capture the flag scene, I don't remember how long it is, it's like six minutes or something. You're looking at weeks of work, and every single scene was done over many, many days. And the kids were fighting with the swords over and over and over again to get just the right shot. It was a lot of work for them."

13. One of the changes from The Lightning Thief that Rick loves is that Annabeth pushes Percy into the water when Poseidon claims him. He said it shows that "Annabeth is an agent of change. She's not just a bystander."

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Speaking about that moment further, Rick added, "I think one of the things I'm really happy with is our decision to give Annabeth a little more agency. In the book, she knows what's going on. But she does not actively push Percy into the water."

14. Another difference between the book vs. the show is Rick enjoyed being able to see scenes that Percy's not part of and getting to expand characters outside of their relationship with Percy. In particular, one scene that Rick loves is an upcoming flashback with Sally and Poseidon.

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"You see the story, this is the same story, but it's from multiple angles that you wouldn't necessarily have Percy knowing about. One of the most beautiful is later in the season when there is a flashback to young Percy and Sally. You really feel how hard it is for Sally, being a single mom of a kid who's a handful and who has changed school so many times, who has learning differences and accommodation needs, and doesn't want to go to another school," Rick said. "She is trying her best. But there is a scene where she just gets to the point where she's feeling pretty down. In this moment she interacts with Poseidon, and they have a conversation about their son. It is so heartwarming and so tender. It just brings tears to my eyes just every time I see it."

15. Similarly, Rick also loved the change to Medusa's story and how the show allows time to acknowledge, "Who's a hero and who's a monster is not always as obvious as the narrative might have you believe."

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Rick explained, "Jessica [Parker Kennedy] was fantastic. She did really inhabit that character so well. It was important for us again, going back to the the idea of multiple points of view, that we refresh that scene. Medusa has her own point of view. There is a reason that she is the way she is, and she has perfectly legitimate grievances with the Gods. So it was really nice to be able to explore that a little bit. And to also make the connection between Medusa and Sally. They have very, strangely enough, similar experiences. So I think that deepened that whole dynamic a lot."

16. The set for Medusa's home, aka Aunty Em's, was actually "way out in the woods," so much so that the cast and crew were warned about wild bears.

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Rick recalled, "That was an amazing set. That was way out in the woods. That was also the day we had a warning: Just look out for the bears. And sure enough, there's a bunch of black bears just gorging themselves on blackberries. It was amazing."

17. One of the most "satisfying moments" for Rick in the adaptation was finally getting to bring the St. Louis arch scene to life because "it's so critical" to Percy's story, and it makes a "turning point for him, where he comes out of that experience a different kid than he was going in."

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Speaking about the importance of this moment, which is seen in Episode 4, Rick said, "One of the highlights for me was bringing that to life FINALLY, because it is so critical. It's the midpoint of the season, it's Percy's moment where he's really having his faith and everything tested. Again, it was a hard thing to nail. We had lots of conversations in the writers' room, trying to get that moment just right. It was a combination of really productive conversations in the writers room, and also just great acting. The actors took what we gave them, and they made it transcendent. They made it into a living experience."

18. One of Rick's favorite Easter eggs is the two wild owls that show up in Episode 2. They just appeared in the woods while they were filming, and he said, "It felt like Athena was looking out for us."

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"It made it into the first trailer actually because it was just so fortuitous. The camera crew saw them and were like, 'Get the owls! Get the owls!'" Rick recalled.

19. And finally, Rick's favorite episode is Episode 5, which features the introduction of Ares and the iconic water ride moment between Percy and Annabeth. He said it's also the episode where Walker, Leah, and Aryan really began to click as a team. Rick added, "The second half of the season is even better because of that."

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Teasing the rest of Season 1, Rick said, "The fifth episode, I am particularly fond of because it's where we meet Ares, and we have the water ride. I think I like that one because by that point in the series, our actors had really come together as a team, not only on screen, but also off screen, and they were cooking. I mean, they knew each other so well, they were getting into their parts. They knew what they were doing. I think the series gets even better. In Episode 5, you really see it. All three of the kids, they BRING IT. The scene on the water ride with Walker and Leah. And also, Grover has a great interaction with Ares that isn't in the book, but is really, really fun."

New episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians drop Tuesdays at 9 p.m ET/ 6 p.m. PT on Disney+.