[This story contains spoilers for the season finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+.]
Percy Jackson completed his quest.
The season finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians finds the title character (Walker Scobell) confronting two powerful Greek gods, sharing emotional scenes with both of his parents — and discovering that there might be more challenges to come. In keeping with the structure of The Lightning Thief, the Rick Riordan novel that’s the source material for this season, the finale showcases several high-stakes scenes that all feel like climaxes to the story, only to build to another big moment.
First, Percy faces down Ares (Adam Copeland) in hopes of retrieving Hades’ helm and preventing an all-out war among the gods and its disastrous consequences for humanity. After successfully taking on the god of war — with a little help from the sea — he travels to Olympus to return the master bolt to Zeus (Lance Reddick, in one of his final acting roles before his death in March 2023). Zeus is ready to go to war anyway, until Percy’s father, Poseidon (Toby Stephens), intervenes and surrenders before fighting can begin. Father and son (finally!) share a moment together before Percy returns to a hero’s welcome at Camp Half-Blood.
The party is a short one, though, as Luke (Charlie Bushnell) reveals what Percy had largely figured out already: that Luke helped orchestrate the would-be war on behalf of Kronos, the Titan who has been haunting Percy’s dreams all season and is looking to take revenge on his children, the Olympians. Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) steps in to help Percy fend off an attack from Luke, who then disappears.
After the tension of those scenes, though, the finale shifts to a more upbeat place, with Percy, Annabeth and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) saying goodbye for now (and Grover having earned his searcher’s license). The trio hug at the Thalia tree, and Percy heads off, still uncertain that Hades has held up his part of the bargain to return his mom from the underworld.
Percy is still Sally Jackson’s son, though, and after a dream-sequence fakeout, Sally (Virginia Kull) wakes him up to start the day. It’s a heartwarming end to the season (save for a deserved comeuppance for Smelly Gabe in a post-credits scene), albeit one that promises more. (As of publication time, Disney+ hasn’t made a call on future seasons — though the series got off to a strong start on the streamer.)
Co-creator and co-showrunner Jonathan Steinberg said that in following the template set by the book for the season’s ending, he and co-showrunner Dan Shotz went “by feel” in deciding how to give the right weight to each key scene.
“If you have a number of scenes that all feel like they’re an ending, it has to be endings to different things, and each has to feed into the next,” Steinberg told The Hollywood Reporter. “They all feel like they’re making a slightly different comment, because there are all of these different motives and priorities.”
Steinberg and Shotz spoke with THR about the finale, the relationship between Percy and his mom, working with Reddick on the finale — who’s remembered in a title card at the end of the episode — and possibilities for season two.
Can you talk a little bit more about figuring out how to land the multiple big moments in the finale?
STEINBERG The journey to find friends and find peers and find connection is one of them. That gets its ending in the Annabeth and Grover moment. The need to save his mother gets its moment. The need to find his father — I think each one is a moment to feel as though [the story has] reached its completion. And then you’re just seasoning to taste so it doesn’t feel like the show’s overstaying its welcome.
SHOTZ The Kronos part of it is also launching the much bigger mythology. It’s been teased throughout the whole season, but that being toward the very end sets up much more to come within the larger mythology and within what it means for Percy personally. So that was also another piece of this, to look forward.
The relationship between Percy and Sally comes across as so strong even though Walker and Virginia don’t share too much screen time during the season. How did you and the two actors work to build that bond?
STEINBERG You know you’re going have this really limited amount of time between them. You have to achieve this sense of investment and chemistry between the mother and son in a way that’s going to carry through the season. So there was a tremendous amount of attention and energy that went into figuring out what those scenes: How do you create this sense of warmth that’s just everywhere without feeling like you’re trying too hard? Having said that, you can do that till the cows come home, but if you don’t have two actors who can sell it, and who are so charming and warm and engaging, it isn’t gonna get you anywhere. The two of them are stars. You see Walker tap her on the wrong shoulder and play games with her, and in three seconds, you get this relationship and you love them.
SHOTZ We had to really make sure we landed this. You had to understand that the stakes of the entire season were in that first episode, how important this relationship is. They really built it a lot off screen. They just bonded right away. Virginia is a mother, Walker is so fun and silly, and they were so playful with each other. I remember a day where he was shooting water guns at her. It was that kind of dynamic, and they just were laughing the entire time.
When you were casting the gods and the other adult characters, how many of the people you approached said, “Oh, my kids love those books” vs. people who didn’t have a connection to the source material?
SHOTZ It was a mix of both. Megan Mullally had never heard about the books — or she knew the name, but she had never read them. And from the moment she signed on, she said, every single person called her and could not believe he was part of this. She was like, “I had no idea. I thought I was just signing up to play a really cool fury.” But she had no idea what she was stepping into and was so excited. She said, “I’ve gotten more calls than I’ve gotten for any project I’ve ever done.” And then ones like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jay Duplass and Adam Copeland, whose kids love these books. It’s a part of their DNA as young readers and influenced their kids as far as falling in love with reading. That’s a powerful experience. I think every one of them said, “I read these books to my kid, and then my kid read these books to me.” That relationship to the books becomes very personal very quickly.
The title card for Lance Reddick at the end of the episode was a really nice nod to him.
SHOTZ That was obviously, as you can imagine, very difficult for all of us — for the kids, especially Walker, who worked with him for those days. But for all of us, losing Lance was heartbreaking. At the same time, we also feel so fortunate to have spent that time with him. And he so delivered, and he loved it. He was so proud of being a part of this and playing that role. He took it so seriously — you can see in the performance how seriously he took it. But he also was kind and fun and such a good scene partner to Walker. It was a really a special experience with him. We miss him a lot.
Have you talked at all about finding another actor to play the role in the future?
STEINBERG We haven’t really talked much about it. Zeus doesn’t play a massive role in a lot of the books. We’ll have to deal with it as it comes. I think for right now, we’re just very excited for people to see his performance and to honor him any way that we can.
Seeing Walker, Leah and Aryan doing press at the start of the season, they’ve definitely grown up some since filming wrapped. Are you thinking “Don’t have too big a growth spurt” or anything like that as you approach potential future seasons?
STEINBERG We tried telling them that, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. [laughs]
SHOTZ We look at it as, it was so important to launch this with the kids being the right age. As the story goes forward, it jumps ahead a year every book, so we do benefit from the fact that in the way Rick structured the book series, we have a big time jump in between each one. But yeah, Walker hit his growth spurt. He’s a little taller than Aryan, and he was a little shorter than him before. There’s all of that that we will have to deal with. But the truth is, these kids are these roles, and we will take them however we have them at the time, because they are perfect.
As you know, the second book, Sea of Monsters, takes place largely on the ocean …
SHOTZ Lots of boats. We’re going back to our Black Sails days.
Are there things you learned making that show you can apply here?
STEINBERG For sure. Despite the fact that I swore I’d never do ships or ocean again, somehow the universe has put the lie to that. But there’s so much that you learn from spending all that time on the water. You can’t help it pick up some things. So we’re to the good in that direction at least.
Finally, I’m curious if the two of you have a favorite book in the series? Is there something you’re really looking forward to putting on screen, assuming the show can go on for a while?
STEINBERG I think it’s hard not to [look to] book five [The Last Olympian]. All of these stories that are getting new life breathed into them and an opportunity to be brought into this medium to all come crashing together into this giant set piece of a war, and all these characters and these emotional factors intersecting is really exciting. Who knows how tall Walker will be at that point, but the story is exciting.
SHOTZ Being able to get to book five — and I know Walker loves book five — would [be amazing]. That culmination is just very exciting to think about. We have the benefit of, even in making season one, we have all those books to look forward to and tease and play into all those elements that we know are to come.
Interview edited and condensed.
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