How to Get Cast on ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’

Like the novels, the Disney+ series centers on Percy (Walker Scobell, “The Adam Project”), who’s only 12 years old when he discovers he’s not only a demigod, but also the son of Poseidon. When he finds out his place in the Greek pantheon has put him in the line of fire, he ventures to Camp Half-Blood, a refuge and training ground for demigods on Long Island. There, he makes friends with Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava’ Jeffries, “Something From Tiffany’s”), the daughter of Athena, and a satyr named Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri, “Cheaper by the Dozen”).

As Percy struggles to grasp the magnitude of his powers, Zeus (the late Lance Reddick) accuses the tween of stealing his master lightning bolt, the god’s deadliest weapon; the development sends Olympus into upheaval. Together with his newfound companions, Percy must clear his name and prevent an all-out war among the Greek gods.

Season 2—based on “The Sea of Monsters,” the second book of Riordan’s series—will see the titular hero and his friends return to Camp Half-Blood, where the walls have been mysteriously weakened, leaving it vulnerable to monster attacks. 

Season 3 will draw its plot from Riordan’s third book, “The Titan’s Curse,” which follows Percy and friends as they aid siblings Bianca (Olive Abercrombie, “Mayfair Witches”) and Nico di Angelo (Levi Chrisopulos, “FBI”) in their escape from West Hall boarding school, only to have things turn dangerous in the aftermath.

Season 1 featured:

• Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson
• Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase
• Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood
• Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan
• Timm Sharp as Gabe Ugliano
• Azriel Dalman as Young Percy Jackson
• Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus
• Adam Copeland as Ares
• Threnody Tsai as Sarah
• Andrew Alvarez as Chris
• Lance Reddick as Zeus
• Toby Stephens as Poseidon
• Timothy Omundson as Hephaestus
• Jay Duplass as Hades
• Jason Gray-Stanford as Maron
• Glynn Turman as Chiron
• Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue
• Jelena Milinkovic as Nereid
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa
• Megan Mullally as Alecto
• Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes
• Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson
• Olivea Morton as Nancy Bobofit
• Manoj Sood as the Principal
• Jennifer Shirley as the Oracle

Season 2 will feature a few new faces, including Tamara Smart (“Resident Evil”) as Zeus’ daughter Thalia Grace; Timothy Simons (“Nobody Wants This”) as the demigod Tantalus; Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holliday”) as Athena; and Daniel Diemer (“Under the Bridge”) as Tyson the cyclops. 

Courtney B. Vance will also join the series as Zeus. The character was previously played by Reddick, who passed away after production ended for Season 1 in 2023. 

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to join the extraordinary cast of ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians!’ ” Vance told Variety. “There are few moments in an actor’s career when you can honestly say that you’re about to board a series that has such a devoted fan base filled with characters beloved around the world and is based on a wildly successful book series. I know that stepping into this role of Zeus will be a memorable experience, and I’ll be giving my brother, Lance Reddick, who left us way too soon, a heavenly hug.”

Season 3 will welcome Olive Abercrombie as Bianca Di Angelo and newcomer Levi Chrisopulos as her little brother, Nico, two characters who will be critical to the series’ storyline. Dafne Keen (“His Dark Materials”) and Saara Chaudry (“The Muppets Mayhem”) will also join the series in recurring roles, playing Artemis and Zoë Nightshade, respectively.

Denise Chamian (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis”) and Jordana Sapiurka (“The Old Man,” “Strange Angel”) put together the ensemble of the Disney+ adaptation.

Chamian says that she sees every performer as an individual. “Everybody wants to discover someone new, and the proof is in the audition,” she told us.

“Many actors are artists, and they approach the craft that way,” she said in an interview with Direct Submit. “Others are workers and approach acting as a business along with the talent they have. Both work. I love actors and their process. I’ve never stopped being curious about how they do what they do. I am in awe of their skill, and I do what I can to help them be the best they can be so they can succeed.”

The Disney+ series kicked off with a rare open casting call, during which time Riordan and the casting team saw “thousands and thousands” of great tapes, the author told BuzzFeed. Ultimately, however, he didn’t put any restrictions or guidelines on the type of actor—he simply wanted young actors who could embody his characters and develop a natural, believable chemistry.

“The only real thing I was interested in was: Can we find actors who embody the character, the personality, the energy of the young heroes that they’re playing? Where’s the voice? Where’s the humor? Where’s the chemistry?” Riordan said. “So, that was the challenge. And it became pretty clear when we were watching Walker, Aryan, and Leah do their auditions, reading the actual lines from the scripts, that they had exactly that. They embodied the way I imagine these characters sounding and acting in my head when I write the ‘Percy Jackson’ books.”

Of course, it helped that Scobell was already hooked on the book series. “He’s a super fan,” Riordan shared. “One of the first questions his dad asked him when he got into acting apparently was, ‘What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?’ And the first thing he said was, ‘I want to be Percy Jackson.’ And that never wavered. So, he came into it with that kind of energy and commitment.”

It was a similar love for the books that helped the team cast some big-name stars. “People often ask me if I ‘dream cast’ my own books, and no, I never do. I just went into the process looking at the tapes that came in, seeing the way that the actors read their lines,” Riordan explained. “We were just very fortunate that a lot of the actors who came to this project came to it for sort of the same reason Walker did, that they loved the books and had a personal connection. Many of our adult actors have children who have read the books. Their children were the ones who were saying, ‘Oh, yes, you have to do this.’ So there’s a real personal commitment to it that they want to do a good job not only because they’re professionals, but because they love the material and they want to do right by their own families.”

Filming for Season 3 began in August 2025 and will continue through March 2026, with an estimated premiere date on Disney+ in late 2026.

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” doesn’t typically post public casting calls, so you’ll want to secure representation if you haven’t done so. Not sure how to proceed? Here’s everything you need to know about landing an acting agent, including how to pick the acting agent who’s right for you and how to get an acting agent with no experience to your name.

Beyond that, we recommend becoming familiar with the local acting community. Here’s how to become an actor in Vancouver. Our guide to auditioning for Disney can also offer valuable insight.

Here’s some advice from a few of the series’ stars.

Be ready for anything. Jay Duplass, who plays Hades, began his career as a director. But when he added acting to his repertoire, he developed a newfound appreciation of the craft.

“It was basically, like, learning how to be totally vulnerable and divulge all of our hangups and let it rip,” he told IndieWire. “I took it as a director because I was tired of being scared of actors, and I noticed that like all actors and directors were scared of each other. And I didn’t want that; I wanted to feel them and understand them and know how to talk to them and support them.

“And I feel like that is the biggest difference in my breakthrough as a director, is being able to really love actors and support them,” he continued. “Since then, though, I’ve definitely relied on that experience as an actor—just letting things happen to me and allowing anything and being open to anything.”

Ignore the naysayers. Megan Mullally, who plays Alecto, credits her long career in comedy to never giving up on her dreams. “Don’t listen to the negative belief systems that some people have,” she told us. “You have to develop your skills and do your side of it; but as long as you’re passionate about it and you hang in there, I truly believe there is room for everybody.”

Don’t be afraid to improvise. “There are people you can try and model yourself after, but you can’t have anybody else’s career,” Jason Mantzoukas (Dionysus) said in an interview with Vulture. “You can only have yours, and you can try and figure it out as best you can.

“I ended up being abroad for just under two years. And it’s a very improvised life,” he continued. “There is not a lot of forward planning I could do. A lot of it required me to actually go to the places, start talking to people, build relationships—all of the kinds of things that required me to just move the ball forward down the field in the moment. That is a lot of what this career is. I can’t predict or know what is going to come next or how it’s going to unfold. I have to keep moving what I have right now down the field.”

Trust in the process. Transforming your passion into a career isn’t always easy, but with determination and positivity, you can make your dreams a reality. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who plays Hermes, told us in an interview about his directorial debut, “Tick, Tick…Boom!” that you must believe everything will unfold as it’s meant to.

“ ‘It’s gonna be OK.’ That’s hard to hear when you’re where Jonathan [Larson] is at the end of ‘Tick, Tick…Boom!’ and you have to look up at a hill that you haven’t built yet,” the Tony winner said. “I wish I could go back and [tell myself], ‘It’s gonna be OK. Keep working. Enough with the morbid fantasies. You’re gonna be alright. Life is longer than you think it is.’ ”