Slay the monsters; then start high school

So let’s say you’ve been busy.
You’ve battled monsters and searched for Zeus’ lightning bolt. You’ve met centaurs and satyrs and lots of gods –Hades and Hermes and Medusa and Kronos and Poseidon and such.
OK, now it’s time to go start high school.
That’s what happened to Walker Scobell (shown here), star of “Percy Jackson & The Olympians.” The first season (now rerunning Fridays on the Disney Channel) debuted on Disney+ in December of 2023, when he was 14.
“My teachers (were) telling me how their kids watch the show,” he told the Television Critics Association. “Every Tuesday, they’d come and give me their rating of it.”
Some other people just kind of stared. “It’s weird going out in public now …. They’ll look and then they’ll point and I wave at them.”
Leah Sava Jeffries, who plays his colleague Annabeth, knows the feeling. “People will literally whisper, ‘Annabeth, Annabeht’ …. If they see me turn my head, they’ll know it’s me.”
Filming the first season started in June of 2022, when Scobell (now 16) was 13 and Jeffries (15) was 12. It finished in February of 2023; they could return to normal life (sort of), while techno-wizardry was being completed.
That December, the first season debuted on Disney+ and the buzz began. The second one won’t debut (on Disney+) until this December, but now the first is on the Disney Channel, two reruns per Friday. The first two were May 2, with others (7 and 7:50 p.m.) on May 9, 16 and 23.
So far, most viewers and critics have approved. They’re “very excited that we’re keeping very true to the books,” producer Dan Shotz said.
That’s not by accident; Rick Riordan insisted on it.
A former middle-school teacher, Riordan has had enormous success with his five Percy Jackson novels. The first debuted 20 years ago. He’s written other books — some related, some not — and sold 30 million in the U.S. alone.
Riordan sold the movie rights to Fox, which had an older Percy — the actor was 17 during filming — and some story troubles. “The script as a whole is terrible …. Fans of the book will be angry and disappointed,” he once wrote in an e-mail.
For that film and its 2013 sequel, the reviews and box office were so-so. Then Disney bought Fox and Riordan stepped in.
He pitched a new, TV version, co-wrote the pilot with Jonathan Steinberg and stuck around, with his wife, to help with other scripts. “Having Rick and Becky in the room with us at all times, it’s just really fun,” Shotz said.
Jeffries said she also went to Riordan for acting advice.
“He was like, ‘Just be yourself.’
“And I’m like, ‘Really?’
“And he’s like, ‘Yeah, whatever you think Annabeth should be, there you go.’ And when he told me that, my whole face lit up.'”
Amid all its spectacle, the show does have some character themes.
“With Medusa, not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster,” Scobell said. “And … there’s always a place for you.”
That last part is key, said Aryan Simhadri, now 19, who plays their colleague Grover. “There is a place for you. If you feel like you don’t fit in right away, there is always a place.”