Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Percy Jackson.
The Disney+ version of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a big step away from the book.
Or at least it seems that way at first. But to executive producer Craig Silverstein, the big plot twist in the Season 2 finale was just a way to truly advance what Percy Jackson has always been about, on paper and on screen: children (in this case demigods) ignored by their parents (all-powerful Olympians) and standing up for themselves.
Season 2 features Talia Grace (Tamara Smart) in a series of flashbacks, based on Rick Riordan’s book The Sea of Monsters. Talia, the daughter of Zeus (Courtney B. Vance), leads Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Luke (Charlie Bushnell) to the safety of Camp Half-Blood for the first time after an arduous journey plagued by constant battles with monsters. In the book, it is revealed that Talia did not become a camper herself, as the Furies attacked her before she could enter the camp. She saves her friends and nearly loses her life in the process, but Zeus intervenes and transforms her dying body into a magical pine tree with the power to protect the camp from monsters. However, in the TV series, that story turns out to be a lie. The Furies never touched Talia. Sent by Hades (Jay Duplass) to turn her against her father, they tell her about a great prophecy in which the child of the “Triple Prophecies” (Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon) will decide to save or destroy the gods, and explain that Zeus plans to use her as a weapon. Thalia was furious, as Zeus was not her current parent, and when he spontaneously appeared to shake her, she told him the same. So he turned her into a tree as punishment to prevent her from ruining his reign on Olympus. It is by no means an act of fatherly love.
“Zeus is saying, ‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, and I have to tell you now,'” Silverstein says. “‘You’re just starting to get very involved in this. You’re almost 16. But the good news is, you’re going to be the princess of Olympus. I’m going to elevate you to something better than everyone else.’ He just wasn’t paying attention to her, and he doesn’t know that that’s not how Talia sells herself.”
Tamara Smart as Talia
According to Silverstein, the Percy Jackson writers came up with the idea for the twist in the middle of writing Season 2, but they initially “kept it at arm’s length.” But by the time I started writing the finale, I realized that Talia’s early flashbacks were a darker version of her final conversation with Zeus. “You look at her and see how she was the leader of this group that didn’t want to be part of her father’s world,” Silverstein says. “Even before she was turned into a tree, she had a grudge against Zeus. That flame is fanned by Luke, who has issues with her father, Hermes.”
Silverstein added, “At the same time, these characters are heroes who care about each other. ‘We look after ourselves’ is the trio’s motto.” In other words, Thalia’s feud with Zeus does not mean she will follow the same path as Luke, who betrayed Annabeth and the other campers by participating in Kronos’ battle to overthrow the gods. “All of this works to energize the last line of Rick’s book, which is when Percy looks at Thalia Grace and thinks, ‘This person could be my best friend or my worst enemy.'”
Vance was cast as Zeus after the death of Lance Reddick, who played the sky god in season 1. Like the screenwriters, he approaches Percy Jackson first and foremost as a family story. Vance, who called Reddick a “dear friend,” began his time on the show by addressing the agonizing elephant in the room. “I had no idea what to do or say because people didn’t want to affect my experience by talking about Lance,” he says. “So I asked people for a moment of silence in his honor. I can’t let a boggart in. The transition takes time. I said I’m grateful to be here and acknowledged Lance as the man. People were grateful for the time to breathe.”
From there, Vance focused on the interpersonal relationship between Zeus and Thalia. He said he “didn’t think about Greek mythology at all. The focus was on the rift between father and daughter.” So he drew from his own experience. He and his wife Angela Bassett have 19-year-old twins. When he and his kids disagree, he says, “Sometimes I say, ‘Okay, let’s see if we can change a few things.'” But sometimes that doesn’t happen. “But I don’t know why!” “You don’t need to understand why. It’s not happening.”
It’s the kind of stubborn, unresolvable conflict that Thalia and Zeus have that allows Percy Jackson to bring Zeus’s poor upbringing to the screen like never before. “She called out to him and he decided that instead of being her father, he would make her Zeus,” Vance said. Yes, in this show, that means weaponizing his divine powers to essentially paralyze her for years — but Vance focused on Zeus’ actions as a manifestation of an adult’s unwarranted anger at a child who simply expressed his feelings. “So what does it mean that you make your daughter Zeus? What does that mean for your relationship and her life?”
Silverstein said that means the “stakes of survival” are coming up, explaining that the change in Talia’s backstory “is meant to advance a great prophecy in the show. The gods are idiots — they don’t care because they’re immortal. But that prophecy means the Olympians could fall just like the Titans before them. They can’t just rely on being immortal anymore.”
Toby Stevens (left) as Poseidon and Walker Scovell as Percy Jackson
It all goes back to the show’s purpose of bringing Mount Olympus back to a more grounded place and allowing us to explore messy, messy family relationships. “Poseidon (Toby Stevens) says that the greatest fear the gods ever had was that their fate would be in the hands of their children, so the Olympians became a little more human,” Silverstein says. “Because we all grow old someday. Unlike the gods, we have to rely on our families and children to take care of us. That’s scary for immortals.”
In Season 3, which Disney+ announced Wednesday will premiere later this year, Percy will have to work alongside Talia, worried that she might be the subject of a great prophecy and that she will make the wrong decision. That tension was already present in “The Titan’s Curse,” the third film in Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” series, so adding a twist to the Season 2 finale helps set up what happens next. “Rick understood how that would make the stakes for next season real. Talia really has beef with Zeus. It’s not a theoretical thing. It’s like, ‘Oh, maybe something turns her[against God].'” Otherwise, it’s because her father saved her, right? Then she’ll be a bit of a brat when she gets angry. ”
This plot twist creates new stakes for camp director Chiron (Glynn Turman) heading into Season 3. Although he initially lies to the campers to protect Zeus’ image, it is he who reveals the truth in the season 2 finale. “If you look closely at the book, Chiron is a bit of a shady character. He does a lot of stuff where he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll go myself, but it’s putting me at risk.’ There are some questionable things,” Silverstein says. “Our Chiron is a rule follower, and the rules he has to follow are very strict. He bonds with the kids, but he’s willing them to fight monsters and die for the glory of God. There’s a little bit of conflict there.”
In the finale, Chiron says to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover (Aryan Sinhadri): “I have always tried to be an example of a demigod, listening to the will of the gods, training and caring for them. I can no longer do both.” With this line, Silverstein states that Chiron realizes that he can no longer focus on the consequences he could face for disobeying the gods. “Because he’s already dealing with the consequences. With Zeus’ paranoia, he was fired (from the camp earlier in the season). Even if you follow all the rules, you can still be fired from your job. Everything is changing. The supremacy of Olympus is being questioned. All who are unchangeable because they are immortal. Now, in this time, the Great Prophecy is experiencing all kinds of changes, which will bring good for Chiron.”
Glyn Turman as Sharon
Disney/David Bukach
Percy Jackson fans are famous for defending Riordan’s original text. But of the new ending for “The Sea of Monsters,” Silverstein said, “I want you to know that what seems like a huge departure is actually not that big of a departure. I’ve always said that this change isn’t as big as the change in Episode 3 where Percy learns about the Great Prophecy, but the stakes of the Great Prophecy are now balanced out and perhaps in conflict with whatever the season’s prophecy was. That thing is just in the background, whereas now, I am very active in waiting for the next book.”
In addition to being part of the twist, Vance, who is working to fill the Olympian spot left by Reddick, laughs as he wonders how the finale will be received. “I’m just trying to be considerate and kind to the fandom because they don’t play. I hear they’re the Real Deal Holyfield. So I’m just saying, ‘Guys, let me in. Give me some time.’
