By the D23 Team
Are you ready? Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is almost here!
This sure-to-be-thrilling season—based on the second installment of Disney Hyperion’s best-selling book series titled “The Sea of Monsters” by award-winning author Rick Riordan—finds Percy (Walker Scobell) returning to Camp Half-Blood one year later and finding his whole world turned upside down... His friendship with Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) is changing; he learns he has a cyclops, Tyson (Daniel Diemer), for a brother; Grover (Aryan Simhadri) has gone missing; Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn) sets off on her own quest; and camp is under siege—with Luke (Charlie Bushnell) leading the charge! Percy’s journey to set things right will take him off the map and into the deadly Sea of Monsters, where a secret fate awaits the son of Poseidon.
As Season 2 readies its December 10 premiere on Disney+ and Hulu, D23 spoke exclusively with the stars—and got some inside scoop on their experiences making this sophomore sojourn...
D23: Thanks for chatting with us! Walker: How do you relate most to Percy?
Walker Scobell (WS): I really think that every season I get closer to Percy because we kind of have the same “home,” in a way. Every year, Percy comes to Camp Half-Blood and I come to set, and then we both go back home to school where none of it exists anymore. You know what I mean? We filmed season one and I just went straight back to school—and I actually did that for a year, while [the actor’s strike] was happening. I feel like I learned a lot in that time. The best way to improve as an actor is to go out and experience real life. I feel like we both came back—Percy a little bit older and a little bit stronger—and, I think for me, I came back a little bit better of an actor [chuckles].
D23: Aryan, did that break factor in to how you approached Grover as well?
Aryan Simhadri (AS): It was nice, because during the break, I could finish up my senior year of high school and get all the stuff that I needed to do out of the way. And coming into season two, I was 18, I was an adult—that was probably the biggest change... I love our set teachers, don’t get me wrong, but having to do our schoolwork in between scenes does mess a bit with the flow of the day. So that was really helpful; it let me sit down and grow with the characters. Because also, there is a bit of a gap between book one and book two—so I feel like the gap we had in real life helped us all grow into where our characters should be as well, which is cool, especially for this upcoming Season 3!
D23: Leah, what do you and Annabeth have in common? How do you differ? And does Annabeth change this season?
Leah Sava Jeffries (LSJ): I think the difference is that I do not know it all, actually [chuckles]. Even though Annabeth is a very much know it all—she has everything in her mind—I don't. But I don't give up, and that’s definitely something we have in common. There might be some stumbles or brick walls and things, but we both definitely get past them... In Season 2, she’s more vulnerable. She’s losing everything—she’s losing Thalia, Luke, and Grover’s gone—and she really only has Percy. They’re the same age and she can’t protect him; he can’t protect her. So they have to work hand in hand with each other—and that’s something that opens up Annabeth more.
D23: Charlie, how would you describe Luke at the start of the season?
Charlie Bushnell (CB): I liked the change [from the book] at the end of Season 1, where instead of [Luke] just taking Percy out to the woods to try and kill him, he tries to recruit him. So we see Luke still holding onto that hope at the beginning of this new season. He’s definitely still trying to recruit Percy and Annabeth and, in an ideal world, everyone, because in his mind he’s doing this for them. He’s trying to create a better world for every demigod. But as the season goes on, it becomes clear to him that that’s not going to happen and he gets a little impatient. He’s no more Mr. Nice Guy.
D23: Dior, what about Clarisse? What’s in store for her?
Dior Goodjohn (DG): The real big thing is that in Season 2, she gets the opportunity—the golden opportunity—to go on her own quest, and she's like, “I'm going to seize this thing, and it's going to be amazing, and I'm going to do it just like my dad and make him proud.” And she comes to realize that’s not going to work, because being a leader in the same way as her father has nothing to do with her. If she wants to succeed or make a real impact, she has to find what it means to be a leader herself and find that confidence within herself.
D23: Daniel, you’re a relative “newbie” on the cast, joining as Season 2 begins—what was that experience like?
Daniel Diemer (DD): Well first of all, I was a huge fan—I grew up consuming pretty much anything from the Percy Jackson world that I could get my hands on... so when I got the audition, I was immediately excited about the potential with just the potential for it. Tyson is one of the sweetest and purest characters I think I’ve ever read. And then how he fits into the project—he has the space that Grover had in Season 1, where he’s the heart of the group. His whole goal is to protect his friends, and that supportive aspect of him was something that was easy to connect with.
D23: All told, what do you all hope this season holds for audiences? And how will you remember it?
WS: Every season is very different. Season 2 gets a lot darker, and we deal with more complex ideas. For Season 3, it’s like that times two. Every year the writers up their game and somehow make it even better than the last season, and they’ve all been amazing. It’s interesting to see it become something more every season...
LSJ: I think it was so special, coming into the second season and just seeing how hard everyone worked... There’s a big scene in Season 2 with a chariot race, and I love when there are a lot of people [in a scene]. There were 200, 300 background kids and we had 20 people in the cast tent instead of just two or three. Everyone was there—even Charlie and Aryan, even though they weren’t there to film. They still came to set every day because of how fun the experience was. It was just this family dynamic that we had...
CB: I just hope the audience has as much fun watching it as we had making it. I remember for Season 1, it became “Percy Jackson Tuesdays”—everyone couldn't wait for Tuesday to watch Percy Jackson with their friends and family. I hope people can have that again, and sort of “escape” into Percy’s world for a little while.
AS: I think the biggest the moral of the story is that there really is a place for everyone. Rick [Riordan] wrote these books as a bedtime story for his son and I think they are representative [of the idea] that there’s a place for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you feel like you don’t belong, eventually you’re going to find a place where you can contribute, where you feel like you can lead. That’s exactly what happens to Percy, and that’s what I hope everyone takes away [from the show].
Don’t miss Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians when it premieres on Disney+ and Hulu December 10! And to read more about the making of the season, D23 Gold Members can check out the Winter ’25 issue of Disney twenty-three by clicking here, or by visiting DisneyStore,com. (Not a Gold Member? Join now!)