Lin Manuel Miranda is swapping musicals for monsters after joining the new Percy Jackson fantasy series on the streaming service Disney Plus. Turns out, the actor was encouraged to join the project by Rick Riordan, the author of the original novels upon which the TV series is based.
The Percy Jackson stories gave life to two fantasy movies in 2010 and 2013, but the franchise died off after those. The fanbase has been there all along, though, and people are very excited about that world being explored once more with the Percy Jackson TV series.
With production underway, Riordan posted on his website about Miranda taking on the role of Hermes and revealed the two had been in contact for a while.
“Once we’d written the script and had Hermes’ lines, I could not get Lin-Manuel Miranda’s voice out of my head. I knew he would be the perfect person to bring Hermes to life in all his complex glory. I figured it was a long shot. Lin-Manuel is a busy guy!,” Riordan said.
“But with our showrunners’ encouragement, I sent him a note saying, ‘Hey, you ever felt like being a god for a couple of days?’ To my delight, he was excited to join the Percy Jackson family. His son even provided him with some background reading on Hermes to prep him for the part,” Riordan added.
Well, isn’t that nice. The movies based on books may not have took off in the way many had hoped, but this second chance could be the real deal it seems.
If you like Lin Manuel Miranda, you may be interested in our list of the best Disney movies where his work on Moana may well be included. Or, for more fantasy, check out our guide to the Stranger Things season 5 release date.