Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan has praised “electrifying” early footage of the new Percy Jackson TV series as filming continues on the ambitious Disney Plus show.
With The Adam Project‘s Walker Scobel as the titular character, Riordan has been intimately involved in the new series: even writing the first episode along with Jonathan E. Steinberg. Meanwhile, James Bobin is set to direct, as Scobel is joined by Aryan Simhad and Leah Sava Jeffries, who will be playing Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase respectively.
Riordan has been sharing regular updates about the series’ development on his website, and on his latest blog post, which covers the series’ fourth week on filming on location, he was full of praise for the young cast: “Our fourth full week of filming is well underway in Vancouver, BC! We are receiving ‘dailies’ of the scenes recorded each day, and they look… dare I say, divine,” the YA author wrote. “This cast is electrifying. They own their characters and turn their lines into magic on screen. That’s even before editing, soundtracks or special effects.”
This isn’t the first time the hit novels have been adapted for the screen. Famously, Riordan was less-than-impressed with 20th Century Fox’s fantasy movie adaptation of his novels. “To me, it’s my life’s work going through a meat grinder when I pleaded with them not to do it,” he said at the time. “But it’s fine. All fine. We’re gonna fix it soon.”
If this is what “fixing” the Percy Jackson on-screen adaptation looks like, then we have high hopes for the series when it eventually drops on the streaming service, which looks set to be sometime in 2023. In the meantime, we can rely on Riordan to keep us updated every step of the way.