Walker Scobell Navigates Hero's Journey as Percy Jackson in Disney+'s Olympus-Sized Debut

According to Walker Scobell, who aimed to recreate Percy Jackson, the main character of author Rick Riordan's well-known book series, accurately, every story has a hero's journey.

Scobell, who co-starred with Ryan Reynolds and Mark Ruffalo in Netflix's "The Adam Project," made a strong television debut. He currently hosts "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," a show that is based on Rick Dangerfield's book series.

The main character, a 14-year-old actor, is the son of the Greek god Poseidon, and he sets out on a number of missions to avert tragedies in both the mythological and mortal realms. Actor Logan Lerman played the role in two feature films before.

"We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to try to do things correctly. And we didn't want to disappoint anyone by giving the fans what they deserve—a very faithful adaptation—after all these years," Scobell said virtually to PTI.

It is predicated on lessons discovered in everyday life. In one way or another, everyone has experienced a hero's journey, and every character in a movie, in my opinion, has done so. Furthermore, Percy's journey was clearly defined, so I believe it was crucial to get that right," he continued.

Currently available to stream onDisney+ Hotstar, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" follows the title character as he travels across America in order to retrieve Zeus' master bolt and put an end to a full-scale conflict.

Percy finds refuge at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for children of demigods, following the death of his mother. When it becomes clear to him that he is also a demigod, he must confront his past and prove himself.

Scobell, who is a fan of the books, expressed his excitement at taking on the iconic role.

Even before we began filming, we were all quite the fans. In the fifth grade, I read the books," he continued.

Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri, who play Percy's friends Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase, respectively, join Scobell in the series.

As the 14-year-old character Chase, the daughter of the Greek goddess Athena, who has been training at Camp Half-Blood for five years, Jeffries expressed her gratitude for having Riordan's books available for reference.

"Playing Annabel wasn't like taking on a brand-new role. The show has a lengthy backstory and is being made for the first time ever. On it, movies have been produced. Therefore, I think it was more exciting to realize how much effort so many people had put into creating this character. And now that I get to play this character for an entire series and get paid for it, I think it's even better.

"So reading the books and watching the movies and seeing how the characters play out and how the chemistry is I definitely feel like that helped a lot with the series also," she explained.

Indian-American actor Simhadri, 17, called Underwood the "soul of the group". In Riordan's novels, Underwood is a satyr—a half-goat, half-human—who is magically transformed into a 12-year-old boy and is Percy's closest friend.

"He's very sympathetic and tries to keep things grounded, which is very helpful when you're dealing with characters who really keep everything inside, like Percy and Annabeth. I spoke with Walker and Leah about it a lot, and he's able to make that connection," he remarked.

The actor stated that he aimed for the three characters' relationship to seem genuine on screen.

"That kind of connection, where you can tell right away how someone is feeling, cannot be forced. That is not possible to be artificial. Thus, how to establish that connection was a major topic of conversation for all parties involved—at least for my character and Rick," Simhadri continued.

In addition to Adam Copeland, Jason Mantzoukas, Timothy Omundson, Suzanne Cryer, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Olivea Morton, Azriel Dalman, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman, and Timm Sharp, the cast of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" was created by Riordan and Jon Steinberg.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.