‘Percy Jackson’ Disney Plus Series To Be Led by ‘Adam Project’s Walker Scobell
Disney has found its Percy Jackson in The Adam Project star Walker Scobell.
Variety dropped the much-anticipated news earlier today, following a series order at Disney Plus back in January. Percy Jackson and the Olympians will supposedly cover the famous fantasy book series step by step, starting with The Lightning Thief, which follows “a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson, who’s just coming to terms with his newfound supernatural powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt.”
Walker Scobell made his on-screen debut with Netflix’s The Adam Project exactly a month ago. The sci-fi adventure film was directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy), with Ryan Reynolds as the leading man and Scobell playing a younger version of him. Many critics and viewers praised Scobell’s strong performance as a newcomer, so it was only a matter of time before he landed a sizable role — this project is a massive jump though, so congrats to him.
The previous big-budget effort to adapt Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series was handled by 20th Century Fox and spawned two films: The Lightning Thief (2010, directed by Chris Columbus) and The Sea of Monsters (2013, directed by Thor Freudenthal). Neither managed to crack “fresh” status among critics and audiences, and barely grossed over $400 million worldwide combined. The next Harry Potter-level craze, they were not. Logan Lerman played the titular role in those two films, with Alexandra Daddario co-starring as Annabeth, another demigod.
Riordan and Jon Steinberg (Black Sails) will serve as writers of the pilot episode, which James Bobin (Muppets Most Wanted) will direct. Steinberg is overseeing the series with his producing partner Dan Shotz. Steinberg and Shotz serve as executive producers alongside Bobin, Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, and The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell, and D.J. Goldberg. The series will be produced by 20th Television, now a part of Disney Television Studios, and is going into production this summer.
Francisco J. Ruiz is that guy who has watched Jurassic Park a thousand times and loves Star Wars. His hunger for movies is only matched by his love for video games. He graduated in English Studies from the University of Malaga, in Spain. As he keeps writing about what he enjoys (and doesn’t) for websites all over, he’s continuing his studies.
