EXCLUSIVE: Rick Riordan Chats Season 2 of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’
Disney+ kicked off the second season of their hit series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, today, December 10. Based off the second novel, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monster, in the best selling series, by Rick Riordan, BeautifulBallad had the opportunity to catch up with Riordan about the new season.
On what he was most excited to see adapted from page to screen: “The sailing of the Ironclad into the Sea of Monsters between Scylla and Charybdis comes immediately to mind—it’s incredible. The chariot races, amazing. The scenes on Polyphemus’ island, amazing. But honestly, I have to say that the scenes that have stuck with me from Season 2 are the quieter ones, the ones of the characters just being together and learning how to trust each other and be a family and be conflicted about their feelings. Those are the ones that impressed the most, because the actors are just so great.”
On the completion of season two, what does he hope take away from the larger mythology of the series: “I hope they will be very conflicted about whose side is the right side in this conflict. Luke is our antagonist, but he’s not wrong about some of the things he’s saying. And the gods are not necessarily the best leaders or the best parents. So we should at this point be asking ourselves, ‘Wow, if I was a demigod, whose side would I chose?’ And if you’re not sure, if you have mixed feelings, then we’ve done our job, and hopefully you’ll be really chomping at the bit for Season 3.”
On whether it feels surreal to see his characters brought to life on screen: “Yes, it is a bit surreal. They live in my head and have for, 20 years now, so seeing them incarnated as actors is always challenging for me to sort of wrap my mind around. But, having been involved in the casting, I was able to sort of see all the options and I am absolutely confident that we have the most incredible team of actors to play these characters. Yes, I’m very pleased and honored that they have decided to live in this world and make these characters their own. They’re all incredible people, and also just massively talented.”
On the exploration of characters, such as Clarisse, >which was not done in the books: “That’s one of the most exciting things about Season 2, is how Dior Goodjohn (Clarisse) inhabits that character, makes Clarisse more sympathetic. But also more conflicted—we get to see a lot of the things that are happening in the background with her family and how she becomes a leader. And a lot of these changes are not so much that the scenes are new or different from the book, but they feel more impactful and they feel more vital when you see them on the screen. Just a look from Clarisse can feel speak volumes. So I think we are telling the same story, but we have the advantage of being able in TV to tell it from different points of view, and so being able to be with Clarisse has really opened up the world and my understanding of it, even as the author. I think I have a lot more sympathy for how three-dimensional her character is, thanks to Dior and the incredible work that she’s done.”
On whether the actors portrayal of his characters made him view the characters in a different way: “It has. In some ways it’s just sort of deepened my understanding of who they are. I will say that now when I’m writing books set in Percy Jackson’s world, I have the voices of the actors in my head in a good way, in a way that makes the characters seem more real, more vital to me than perhaps they even were before. (And it’s difficult to say what came first, the voice in my head of Percy Jackson or my understanding of his voice now that I’ve gotten to spend so much time watching Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson and doing such a great job. But it’s been fascinating to me to have that experience and to have one form of storytelling cross-pollinate with the other form and I think both are stronger for it.”
On whether a specific scene had to be adapted perfectly from the book to set the tone of the series: “The one that comes to mind is probably the scene with the sirens, when Percy and Annabeth have to sail past their island. And it gets very, very complicated and there’s a lot of emotions there, and I knew that the fans of the books, their eyes were going to be on that episode probably more than any other. So we spent a lot of time talking about what that needed to look like, how it needed to feel, uh, if it needed to change, and if so, how, and what needed to be there that was the same as the books. I think it came together really, really well. It’s a little bit different simply because the medium is different, and so that always has to be taken into account. But I’m gonna go out on a limb and I’m gonna say I think fans of the books are gonna be very pleased.”
On the inspiration behind the Ironclad ship and filming it’s scenes: “The set was incredible. They built a full-size Ironclad and it’s amazing what they can build. It was rocking back and forth and the waves—I’m glad I wasn’t onboard because the actors, the stuntpeople, they were getting thrown around—they were all on cables, it was all very safe—but it didn’t look safe. It was really impressive even before any special effects. As for the ship, it was inspired by the sort of the growth of the Ironclad as a war machine during the American Civil War. In the books, it’s more specific to that time period. That’s probably ’cause at the time I was still a classroom teacher teaching American history. I was teaching the Civil War, and so I was fascinated with the new technology that led to the Monitor and the Merrimack, that famous Civil War battle at sea. In the series on television, we don’t really go into that as specifically, but as a form of technology, as a naval weapon, the Ironclad is pretty impressive to look at.”
On what story elements were must-keeps for the season: “I think generally speaking, as long as the story is going the same direction and we’re arriving at the same destination, I’m open to talking about different ways of telling the story. Sometimes that can actually be very additive and helpful. The idea that in the books we’re in Percy’s head 100 percent of the time. that’s not really something you can do, at least not the same way in TV, and I’m not sure it’s even a good idea to try. It’s better to sort of explore the story from different angles. So where we always start is I will write an outline for the season based on the book and I will break it into eight rough episodes and I’ll share that with the showrunners and the writing team. And normally we stick with that outline pretty much pretty faithfully. Now, the details may change or when certain things are talked about may change, but generally speaking, I’ve already kind of outlined my must-haves. So what you see in the second season, those are them. ”
On what surprised him the most about any changes from the book to screen: “What surprised me most about the changes would be some of the flashback scenes. We can dig so much deeper into them—showing Thalia, for instance, with Luke and Annabeth back when they were adventuring together. Some of the most powerful scenes, they’re only mentioned in the books, but they really work well. They pop when you see them on the screen.”
On opting to involve Thalia in this season when most fans believed she would not appear until season 3: “One of the collections where I have a short story told from Luke’s point of view, The Diary of Luke Castellan. It’s the same story, it’s the same dynamic. But again, it hits differently when you see it on the screen. I’ve had some people saying, ‘Wait a minute, Thalia’s in this season? She doesn’t appear until Season 3.’ That’s because in the books, you don’t see her in present day, and so it doesn’t really feel like you know her. However, there are lots of flashbacks in the books—it’s just you don’t see them. You’re not living in the moment with them the way you do in the TV show. I think that’s the real difference. So I’m satisfied that Thalia and Luke and Annabeth, their storyline is very, very close to what I originally envisioned. It’s simply that yes, Thalia, seeing her in action the first time she appears, I got chills. It’s like, wow, this young lady is really, really powerful. She is a hero. (The way that it hits does make her seem much more present in the series and in the story as a whole, you’re absolutely right.”
On what he is the most excited for fans to see this season: “Aside from the guinea pigs, which are pretty cool, um, I would say probably the- you know, the way the characters come together. I’m gonna go back to that. I know we had such incredible, fantastic spectacle in this season, it’s unbelievable, it feels so much bigger. But I’m always drawn to the moments where we get to see the characters just interacting with each other. I love that. Some of the downtime moments that we get with Percy and Tyson, for instance. Some of the moments with Percy and Annabeth is just gold. The way they’re learning to trust each other still, to be friends, to sort of figure out where they stand with each other as they’re getting older, it’s really, really great television and great storytelling.”
Season two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is airing on Disney+ now.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity
Photo credit: Disney/Richard Harbaugh