-[thrilling music playing]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Walker] This is going to be so sick.
-Luke, everything going good?
-[Charlie] Yeah.
[crew member 1] All right.
[crew member 2] Three, two, one. Action!
-[pants]
-[machine whirring]
[suspenseful music playing]
From the very first days of the project,
we've been talking about viewers
all over the world, especially kids,
to see in them
the hero that they hope to be.
[Miahai] The world of Percy Jackson
is an incredible canvas.
[Jonathon] It demands that it have
the kind of execution
that I think we've all committed to.
[Aryan] Growing up
with such an iconic series
it's insane
being able to bring that to life.
-[thrilling music playing]
-[Rick] This is a big story.
I mean, dare I say epic?
That's a good Greek word.
What is happening right now?
[actors grunt]
[Andrew] These books
ask us to consider big things.
Where are we from and where are we going?
Can we take the risk to want?
Oh, my gosh, this is so cool.
[Walker] That was amazing.
[Megan] I've never seen
anything like this.
[Dan Shotz]
He was so committed all season.
[Rick] This story turned into something
bigger than I had ever anticipated.
We are embarking on the biggest adventure
any of us have ever been on.
["Percy Jackson and the Olympians"
theme music playing]
[NYCC host over mic] Welcome to you all.
Welcome to New York Comic Con,
I hope you feel the love.
You guys feeling good?
-[James over mic] Yeah, thank you so much.
-[Dan over mic] Hey, everybody!
[crowd cheering]
[exciting music playing]
[NYCC host over mic]
John and Dan, let's start with you guys
[Dan Shotz] There are 180 million copies
of Percy Jackson sold around the world.
That responsibility to the fan base
was a lot of pressure.
[NYCC host] Rick and Becky Riordan,
everybody!
[crowd cheering]
And to have Rick, the author,
who has, you know,
given 20 years of his life
to this material,
right in the center,
building this with us,
it was essential.
-It was crucial. It was
-[crowd cheering]
[Dan Shotz]
It was gonna make the difference
of this working or not working.
[insects chirping]
[mellow music playing]
We're at the Volume stage
at Mammoth Studios,
and we're doing the camera tests.
I'm excited.
Everything looks awesome so far.
I'm excited to start filming.
This was never a project that I wanted
to do just because I wanted to do it.
It was more about the fans
that have read the books over the years.
I knew that there was
this sort of pent-up demand
for a really faithful
adaptation of the stories.
[Jonathon] It's been a bit of a journey
for him too, to finally see these things
realized in a way that feels right to him,
that feels like it's doing justice
to the story
that he's spent so much of his life with.
[Rick] Really, it started
as a bedtime story for my son,
when he was feeling
not so great about himself
because of his learning differences.
He loved Greek mythology
and I told him all these stories
and I made up Percy Jackson.
It was really because he wanted to see
a character like himself
who had ADHD and dyslexia,
but was also a hero.
It's crazy how it went
from the bedtime story 20 years ago,
to here we are.
[thrilling music playing]
[Dan Shotz] When we started this process,
we knew in casting Percy, Annabeth,
and Grover, we had a tall order.
[Jonathan] It's always a challenge.
So many people have read this book
and everybody has their own idea
about what they look like.
For us, it was really about trying to find
the soul of all of these people.
And finding Walker, I think,
was the moment we all knew
this was going to work.
I had a couple calls
with the producers, Dan and John,
and I thought
I wasn't going to get anymore.
And Rick joined,
and then he told me himself, with Becky,
that I got the part.
[chuckles] Which was really cool.
He really embodies
what it means to be Percy.
He has a sense of humor.
He has Percy's snark.
Also his sense of wonder.
I wish I had been that good at his age.
He's really wonderful.
He is the real deal.
He is talented. He is so hardworking.
He is so playful. He's a delight.
-Thank you.
-[indistinct chatter]
[Dan Shotz] This is a story of a trio
and how they play off of each other.
Everyone has their moments of doubt,
their moment of humor,
-their moment of emotional struggle.
-[door knocking]
[Sally] Who's there?
-Mrs. Jackson, it's Grover.
-Grover?
This is a little time sensitive.
Could someone maybe open the door?
I sent in a tape, like, partly as a joke.
I was convinced I wasn't gonna get it.
'Cause this is like such an iconic show.
You know,
you really want to do it justice.
-[crew member] Across. Leah.
-Huh? Leah.
Or Leia.
My audition process
was a lot of auditions.
I started off, I was,
like, flirting with him.
Like, "I like your sword, oh, my gosh,
-"like, that's so cool."
-[Walker] You had to do that?
-I had to do that.
-[Walker] What?
I think it's the first time
I'm hearing of this.
[Leah laughing]
[Dan Shotz] Individually, you know,
they're all incredible.
But if the chemistry between the three
didn't work, the show doesn't work.
And Walker, Leah, and Aryan
just had that perfect chemistry fit.
-[Andrew exhales]
-[crowd exhales]
I'm Andrew McIlroy,
and I'm the acting coach
on Percy Jackson season one.
And this is where we talk about
what the story is,
where we try to coax
their imaginative life out of them,
and try to build Percy Jackson
into a world that sits in their spine,
in their imagination, all things Percy.
And the group has come together
incredibly well.
Leah, Aryan, Walker.
-[Walker] Andrew
-Super cool.
-[Leah] Yeah. He's super funny.
-He's very smart.
[Walker] Andrew is just the best.
I don't know what I would do
if I didn't have him.
He's honest with me.
They don't just say, "Oh, that was great,"
even when they don't think it's great,
and then they cut the scene, you know?
[Andrew] each other.
And so, for the
It took us no time at all
to actually build a group,
to build an ensemble.
They've been teasing each other,
they've been working
in character with each other.
It's very hard to believe
that they don't know each other.
-[laughs]
-[laughs]
One of the things we like to say
is fill in all the stuff between the lines
and, you know, have the actors like
walking the walk and talking the talk.
-I gotta tell him about Kronos.
-[Andrew] Lovely.
[Walker] It's not like we're just
throwing it out there.
Every single line means something,
and it's not just a throwaway.
[Andrew] What's the word for glory?
-Kleos.
-[Andrew] Kleos.
So where's the glory in that, right
There is nothing
that's mentioned in this book
that we can't actually point to
and say we know what that is,
because there's not a word
that I don't let the actors
have substantiated.
Gorgeous. Do you see what I mean?
It's like, "What is it not to have that?"
Yeah.
-[suspenseful music playing]
-[Grover] A quest is a sacred thing.
And to be charged with one
is to be in conversation
with the gods themselves.
[passenger coughs]
There is no way
this is what sacred smells like.
We're soldiers on a mission.
It's not a vacation.
-[uplifting music playing]
-[Jonathan] The fun to be had in a journey
like this is every time you turn around,
you're somewhere new.
It really is a hero's journey
in every sense.
And we're all across the map.
There are a lot of challenges
in trying to figure out
how you can actually do this.
[Rick] We're off to a rest stop
in New Jersey
and then suddenly moving through
Middle America.
We're at an abandoned water park
and then we're in Las Vegas
at this massive casino.
And they all have to be brought to life.
To do that
[exhales] it takes a lot.
It takes physical locations.
We also have virtual environments
brought to life
by Industrial Light and Magic.
[indistinct chatter]
Scene one, take one, day one, action.
That's a lot of ones.
[Stephen] The Volume here in Vancouver
and StageCraft
is the first ever Canadian Volume built.
It is the game changer. It's the future.
This is the most advanced stuff
that's happening
in visual effects right now.
[Sonia] Instead of having
to travel to all these locations,
we're bringing the locations to us.
[Walker] It's really cool.
One second, you're in New York,
and the next second, you're 3,000 miles
away from that. [chuckles]
[Charlie] You can make it look like
you're anywhere in the world.
And it truly does.
You feel like you're there.
Like, I feel like I'm in the forest
right now.
-[both grunt, pant]
-[thrilling music playing]
Within the computer,
all of this exists as a 3D scene,
which we can move around
and we can manipulate as we want.
[Sonia] Sometimes it's something as easy
as moving a tree around.
[Stephen] And it creates these backgrounds
that you're seeing in the camera.
[Christopher] We mount tracking objects
on top of the camera
to find out the exact tracking position
of where the camera is
in relation to the Volume,
so that we can project them on the walls.
One of the big challenges is blending
the real with the virtual.
The more physical set
you can have on the stage
that handshakes with what's on
the Volume wall, the better it is.
-[mellow music playing]
-[Walker] This is my dad.
I'm Walker's dad.
I don't have a first name anymore.
And this is his first time
on the Volume stage.
Yes. This is absolutely amazing.
I'm excited to watch Walk-Man
do his magic here, on this stage.
Can I get you anything?
Fresh pomegranate juice, a snack?
[Jay] It's truly amazing.
You basically don't have
to use your imagination.
Which is great for me
because I have none, whatsoever.
[exciting music playing]
[Mihai] The world of Percy Jackson
is an incredible canvas for us.
That alone brings excitement
because of the challenges.
And we can push this new discipline
of virtual production
to way higher grounds.
[crew member] Car crash?
Today is the Minotaur car crash. Yeah.
[suspenseful music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[makeup artist] I'm going to spritz
your face. One, two, three.
That's nice.
[Andrew] Today, we have a Camaro
on a six-axis motion base
that can move anywhere in space.
And it does so, similar to what this
scale model that we call a Waldo does.
And we can move the Camaro around
and act like it's driving down the road
on the screens that you see behind me.
Yeah, I think it's going to spin.
I think they're going to spin it.
It was really my first introduction
on how tiring it can be to film on a set.
They got to shake the car around,
and seeing like trucks
and like the Volume stage,
and glaring lights
and the rain and the water towers.
It was fantastic.
[Eli] Here it comes. Hit!
[intense music playing]
[car engine revving]
-[James] Cut!
-[indistinct chatter]
[Walker] That was pretty fun.
So we just finished the first
full week of filming.
Yeah, this was a fun week.
Can't wait for
the 46 more or something. [chuckles]
-Morning.
-[Aryan] You gotta stand like this.
-[Walker] Morning.
-[Aryan] Power pose.
-[mellow music playing]
-[Walker] It's real metal.
[James] It definitely is.
-Also, it's totally deadly. [laughs]
-[Walker] Yes.
[James] This would not be
a good way to end.
One of the biggest challenges
when you take a book
and make it on the screen
is creating a plausible world.
So from our props to our costume
to our set design,
it had to be very tangible, very real.
[Zo] The heads of departments on the show
are bringing their own ideas
of what it means to inhabit the qualities
that these characters in the books do.
And it lets the world breathe
from the bottom up.
We had over 120 children
that we had to put armor on,
and tried to come up with something
that was reminiscent
of ancient Greek armor,
but just modified the shape so that
the children would be able to wear it.
[Leah] Putting on my costume
for the first time
really made me feel like, "Oh, yeah,
I'm a part of this now. I'm so ready."
This came from Shein. This came from
-[Tish] Louis Vuitton.
-Yeah, Louis Vuitton.
And this is Gucci.
His stuff just came from-- I don't know.
-This is Goodwill.
-[indistinct chatter]
It's a ten-dollar outfit, I think.
[machine whirring]
[Rick] When we were talking
to the props department about Riptide
Swords. Shields. Pen.
[Rick] I said, it has to be like really,
really plain looking,
like a 30-cent ballpoint pen.
But they did put this really cool detail.
The guard on the pen cap is shaped
like the blade of Riptide.
[Walker] Well, don't tell anybody,
but I'm stealing that sword.
I don't care what anybody says.
I'm taking that home. [laughs]
[Dan Shotz] We really found
some of the best people
-[mellow music playing]
-to bring this world to life.
Oscar-winning Dan Hennah,
who did Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit,
is creating worlds
like my imagination could never go to.
Today, we're in Asphodel,
with Asphodelians.
You don't know which ones are alive
or which ones are mannequins.
-And it is really freaky.
-[Walker] Worst nightmare.
If I saw a plastic one move or something,
I would have d*ed.
The key factor is finding the vision
of the director and being true to that.
I tend to start off
with some concept artists
and then set designers do their magic.
[Chris] We are in stage four
at Mammoth Studios,
building the Terminus set
for episode five.
And what we're standing in
will be a 32,000 cubic foot t*nk of water
where Percy and Annabeth
come to retrieve Ares's shield.
[Percy] There it is.
So here we are at the Terminus,
amazing water set.
A lot of fun.
-Look at that. Best Jacuzzi ever.
-Oh, my God.
Can I actually take a quick dip
at the end of the day?
[Aryan] I wouldn't mind if you did that.
[intense music playing]
[Dan Hennah] Camp Half Blood,
we searched far and wide
to find the right environment.
And finally we walked into this forest
at Langley,
which had all the attributes we needed.
And then we needed to build our world.
[crew member] This has been
about a three-month process.
A lot of the work was bringing in
an incredible amount of greens,
digging out this pond,
basically taking Dan Hennah's concept art
and realizing it into this space.
[Walker] It came together so well.
Just seeing all the cabins
in that "U" formation.
It's so weird because I've been
imagining that since, like, third grade
and then actually being there
and seeing that,
like walking in
and doing scenes in the cabin.
It's just it's--
You can't even describe it.
-It's really cool.
-[mellow music playing]
[Chiron] Everyone. Your attention, please.
This is Percy Jackson.
I think the things that
have always made Percy feel different,
it turns out once he's around people
who are like him
-I'm Luke.
-[Jonathan] he's not so unusual.
Demigods just process reality differently.
For the first time in your life,
you're just like everyone else.
Charlie, who plays Luke, is like
the big brother that everyone wants.
And Walker immediately looked up to him.
This is a daily occurrence on set.
Trying to get the perfect dap.
One time we were at Camp Half Blood,
and we did it so much
that I had like a five-star print
-[Charlie chuckles]
-on my forearm. [chuckles]
Charlie?
Walker, wh [chuckles]
what are you doing here?
-Oh, my God.
-Dude, it's been so long.
It's been so--
Yes.
There's some wish fulfillment,
I think, in a story about a kid
who's always felt different
finding a place where he fits in.
[Walker] I was a m*llitary brat,
so we moved around a lot.
And so there's a lot of different schools,
and I always had to remake friends
and I really connected with that while
I was reading the books, I think, so
-[introspective music playing]
-[Toby] He is fantastic as Percy.
And he's lovely to work with
and he's a really great actor.
[indistinct chatter]
-[thrilling music playing]
-[electricity crackles]
[James] Clarisse is a complicated one.
She is his nemesis at the beginning.
-[grunts]
-[Walker groans]
She's the character
that we all love to hate, that's for sure.
I just want you to admit
that you are a fraud.
[laughs]
[Clarisse grunts]
[James] For Percy, she's a bit like
the sort of bullies
he's used to dealing with at school.
But he sort of learns
that he's actually quite good at fighting.
For us, that moment with Clarisse
was really the eye-opening moment for him,
of all of the things
he was capable of and never knew.
[Walker] She can really scream.
-Oh, yeah.
-There was that one scene.
It was like an opera singer,
it was amazing.
If there was any glass near us,
I'm sure it would have shattered.
No!
-[tense music playing]
-[pants]
Poseidon affects Percy's journey
in that I think he sort of intervenes
at certain points, deliberately.
And I mean, that's all he can do, really.
Water is an incredibly important theme
in the whole Percy series
because Percy's dad is Poseidon
who is the sea god.
Obviously, sh**ting in water is not easy.
We chose very much to sh**t practically,
because I love the experience
for the actor of being
in the environment of water.
[suspenseful music playing]
[screams]
[mellow music playing]
[chuckles] We're at a training facility
in Vancouver.
This is where we've been
working with Walker, training him.
-[Evett] Hi.
-Two weeks of getting in in a costume.
[Evett] I know.
-[Roberta] Look at you.
-[chuckles] It feels gross.
It feels like well, cold
because I didn't like wearing wetsuits.
I'm getting used to it.
[groans]
-[Roberta] There you go.
-[Walker] Oh, dude.
You don't think that wearing clothes
makes a big difference. It really does.
Because you feel like
you're drowning, you know?
Wearing shoes underwater,
like, you can't really use your feet
because it doesn't really like, work.
You can't kick. You have to use your arms.
At the beginning, it was a little scary.
[Roberta] We have put him through
a free-diving youth course.
And he flew through it with flying colors.
He's very comfortable in the water.
And we're just layering skills
so that they're able
to simply focus on performing.
[tense music playing]
[Dan Shotz] The commitment
for a 13-year-old,
I have never seen anything like it.
He's put in a t*nk.
He was underwater for most of the day
with scuba gear.
And this is really complicated work.
[Eli] So at the very beginning,
your left foot is trapped.
Your first instinct would be,
go to the surface.
So you push off to the surface,
boom, you're caught.
Then I'll say "Nereid."
And that is what's coming towards you.
-Okay, so
-[Eli] And then we'll take--
-How many times do I have to do the jump?
-[Eli] Twice.
-[Walker] Twice.
-[indistinct chatter]
No turning back now.
[brooding music playing]
[Eli] Okay. Here we go.
And it's on you, buddy.
[Roberta] Holding your breath
is a difficult thing to do.
But when you're doing it
without a mask, in costume,
it is very, very difficult.
And then you have
to perform on top of that.
[Nereid] Trust yourself. Just breathe.
[breathes deeply]
[Dan Shotz] He would put the regulator in,
take the regulator out,
and just stay underwater
because he wanted to get it right.
It just says everything
about who Walker is.
[Eli] Three, two, one, action.
[Jet] Working with the kids
in the water was awesome.
[Leah] We're noticing that like,
"Oh, yeah, we need to get out of this boat
"before something happens."
That's when we
[Jet] Coming to set, they knew
the pressure that was on them
because if we didn't get this take
it would take another hour
for them to dry off and do a take two.
So I just was real with them
because they're smart kids.
I said, "You know what?
At the end of the day,
"if we have to do that,
it's gonna be okay."
[Eli] Action. And jump!
-Yeah! And cut. Good job, guys.
-[crew cheers]
[Jet] And they nailed it.
I was so proud of them.
-Yeah! It looks awesome!
-[Leah laughs]
-[mellow music playing]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Jet] I know Leah had rehearsed in a pool
many times and I was so proud of her
because she was nervous but committed.
And that's all you can ever ask.
[Floyd] One thing I can say,
she's a hard worker.
So, if anybody works harder than Leah,
that's something to see.
She's a perfectionist.
The challenge is more of Leah proving
that this role is for her.
Come on. Let's go find Percy.
You know, proving the fact
that she's a wise girl.
She's tough. I think it pushes her.
I could come into her room at night
and she's studying her lines
and I'm asking her,
"Leah, what are you doing?"
"I'm not Leah right now. I'm Annabeth."
[Jonathan] I think the moment we met Leah,
it was one of those moments
where a character that had only
really existed on the page,
as far as the show goes,
started to come into focus.
She has this sense of groundedness
to her that's really rare.
She wants to do the best job possible,
and she is just laser-focused
on getting the role right.
So when you got to us,
you'd be different than this.
It's great to work with Leah.
She's exactly how I envisioned Annabeth.
[Aryan] Annabeth is the most reasonable.
She keeps the group on track.
She always is one step ahead.
That's the big thing.
She's always one step ahead.
And Leah does a phenomenal job
of playing it.
[Leah] I do feel like Annabeth
on and off of set.
I've become this character so much now
that, like, I'm always like,
"Wait, who's that?
"Wait, no. I hear something.
What is that?"
There's a combination of strength
and cool to her.
[Jet] I've really enjoyed
sharing this journey with Leah,
in her journey with Annabeth.
She's led with such prowess.
But also with a lot of vulnerability
where she's still learning
and where she's still
finding things out about herself.
Power and glory and nothing else matters.
Ares is that way. Zeus is that way.
My mother is that way.
But I don't want to be that way anymore.
[breathes deeply]
Good, let's cut. Nice, Leah.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[alarm wailing]
-[footsteps approaching]
-[pebbles rattling]
Whatever we do, we have to make sure
this door does not open.
[thrilling music playing]
-[Walker pants]
-[Leah] They're not done with us.
She's learning to hunt.
And this seems like the hunting part.
[growls softly]
You should run now.
The challenge to creature design
on a show like this
is these are creatures that have existed
for thousands of years.
There have been endless interpretations
of what the Chimera
or Minotaur looks like.
It was important to us as storytellers
that every time you meet
a creature on this show,
it feels like it could only exist
in this show.
At the same time, adhering to the canon
of what that creature is mythologically.
So it creates an interesting puzzle.
How do you do something new
without it feeling too new?
A lot of that was att*cked from
the same place that we att*cked casting,
which was just trying
to figure out who they were.
And impart some level of humanity
and personality to all of these creatures
and to let that then come out.
[Alecto] Come with us
and you will suffer less pain.
Hi, I'm Megan Mullally
and I play Mrs. Dodds, slash, Alecto.
-[thrilling music playing]
-Mrs. Dodds? You okay?
[Megan] I come in as Mrs. Dodds,
the mean math teacher.
We're not fools.
I also turn into this monster
and try to eat them frequently.
[Alecto] Where is it?
The most fun part so far
has been that I get to fly.
Let's get out of here, please,
while we still can.
[Medusa] Not today, friends.
It's a pleasure to meet you,
son of Poseidon.
I'm Jessica Parker Kennedy,
and I'm playing Medusa.
This is my motion capture hat,
which you won't see.
You'll see snakes. It'll be very scary.
I hope you're very, very afraid.
When I ship your statues to Olympus,
maybe that will get my point across.
Medusa, she's a really fun character.
Doing snakes adds a lot of challenge
because they all need to play together.
You don't want to take away
the importance of the character either.
So, it's kind of
a complementary actor in a way.
But it's all grounded to reality
and feels real.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jonathan] We'd seen
a number of iterations
-[Minotaur howling]
-of a Minotaur
that felt a little impersonal,
like that he was a monster only.
We wanted to let him be someone
who felt like he had
a little bit more personality than that.
-[Grover] He is brutal. He is relentless.
-He is wearing underpants.
[Minotaur huffs, snarls]
[Jose] The Minotaur, we've been working
on that creature for quite a bit.
Even before they started
sh**ting that sequence,
we had to develop his character
and get all the detail on the face
and we have some close-ups.
[Minotaur growls]
We have brought in the best of the best
to bring these things to life.
[Jonathan] Our lead partners at ILM,
both in terms of helping us create
the world and the environments
and helping us create
a number of these creatures
[growls]
are doing it at a level
that's pretty astonishing to us
in terms of what's possible and how real
these creatures can be made to feel.
[roars]
[indistinct chatter]
[Jet] Oh, the new producer?
Wow, I will be really, really,
really nice to you then.
How long you been doing this?
This is your first day, or
I've been doing this
for about three to four minutes.
[Jet] Okay. Well, you're doing great.
What do you think of this sh*t?
Pretty good, huh?
-I love it. I think this is amazing.
-[Jet] You'll make this business
-But let's just completely change it.
-[Jet laughs]
[Jet] Copy. You're funny.
How hard could this be?
[tires screech]
[Jet] What's been the most fun part
of this show is these kids' enthusiasm
-for the stunt work.
-[thrilling music playing]
We have such a great stunt team
who are so collaborative.
But Walker is obsessed.
[Corbin] Bon voyage.
He lives for that hybrid
of, you know, stunt acting.
He's great to work with
because he's athletic
and he understands the whole process.
When we try to explain to him
what's going on, he's miles ahead of us.
[crewmember] Go!
[actors grunt]
I have so much respect for that kid.
This is a long sh**t.
He is in, like, every single day
and he still is able to keep
such a good energy.
[Peter] Watching him get to perform
his own stunts,
it's like watching your kid
at a sports game.
[crew cheering]
[mellow music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
-[Cassandra] Did you watch the playback?
-Is it cool?
[Cassandra chuckles] It's really cool.
[Walker] Right now I'm doing a stunt
where I get to fall off
the St. Louis Arch.
This is going to be so sick.
-[Corbin] Luke's being a slack off.
-[Cassandra] It's gonna be super fun.
My name's Corbin. I'm with the stunt team.
This sh*t is hanging through the hole
and it's like a thousand feet down there
or whatever it is.
And he tries to get back up on it,
an arm on there,
and he can't make it,
and he slips back down again,
and then [screams] he falls down.
-[Cassandra] And then throw back.
-[Corbin] Yeah, there you go.
[Cassandra] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Yeah?
-[crowd] Yeah.
[Corbin] We're going to have him hooked up
to this machine, it's called a descender,
and it's for dropping people.
The way it works is it has a motor here
for winding up this line
that's hooked to the performer.
So, you wind them up,
you let go of the brake,
and all of a sudden [imitates falling]
It's a lot of stuff going on at once,
you have to really pay attention.
The first transition.
There we go.
[crew member] Ready? And action!
[suspenseful music playing]
[Minotaur growls softly]
[Echidna] So unfair.
You never had a chance, did you?
[Cassandra] And drop!
-[Minotaur growls]
-[music intensifies]
[Percy panting]
-[Cassandra] Three, two, one, drop!
-[Corbin] Drop. Drop.
[Cassandra] Drop! Drop.
-[Cassandra] Yeah.
-[crew applauding]
-[Cassandra] Nice work.
-[Corbin] Nice.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Eli]
So this is where we're picking up.
I'll say "action" and then you guys
back up, take a couple steps,
and then I'll say, "And turn,"
and you turn and run.
And then we're into your
-Are we doing that separately?
-No, we're doing it all in this. Yeah.
-[Walker] We're flying?
-[Eli] Oh, yeah.
There's a lot of running today.
We should do one take
where we're all just Tom Cruise running.
-Yes.
-Hands spread.
[Walker] Aryan's about to be snatched up
by Cerberus.
[laughs]
We're just like sprinting.
It's kind of like the scene
from Rocky 3 but not like it at all.
We thought like, Cerberus
was just going to, like, grab Grover
by the back of the clothes
and, like, swallow him.
But in the previz,
he literally just eats him.
-He grabs him from like, the waist up.
-[Cerberus growls]
It's scary.
[Cerberus growling, barking]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Eli] Ready, and turn!
[Percy] Go, go, go, go!
[Walker] This is pretty cool to watch.
It's a little hard not to laugh
because [chuckles]
one second you're running and I'm like,
watching him run and then he just gets
[chuckles]
[Cerberus growls]
Grover!
-[Walker pants]
-[indistinct chatter]
-[crew member] Resetting.
-I wanna see the playback
-on that, that was actually really good.
-[stunt double] It looked good.
Did you see that? I was really fast.
I mean, they should, like, charge people
to be able to do this.
This is so much fun.
It's a carnival ride.
-[Vesh] It's a carnival ride.
-It's scary, it's great, it's amazing.
This is my stunt double, Vesh.
He's really cool. He's shredded.
[mellow music playing]
This is my first series regular
and this is my first project
on a role as big as this
or as intensive as this,
so I had no idea [chuckles]
what I was signing up for.
But in that first month of prep,
it was me working with a movement coach,
learning how to walk like a goat,
and wirework, and stunts!
All things I had never done before.
It was awesome.
-Grover?
-Percy.
Grover, why is there
half a goat in your pants?
So, the important thing is not to panic.
He loves it every single day to be here,
to be on the set and to be working.
Really zoom in on this.
[makeup artist 2] We are applying
the slobber of the Cerberus
three-headed dog.
So this is Grover coming out of the mouth.
[panting] You are a bad, bad dog.
No shower I take will be long enough.
[chuckles]
I don't think you need to shower.
Aryan Simhadri is the heart of this show.
His warmth, his vulnerability.
-[cars horn honking]
-[camel grunts]
-This seems dangerous.
-[indistinct chatter]
Oh, they'll be totally fine.
I gave them a satyr's blessing,
so they'll be able
to reach the wilderness--
I meant for the people.
The first tape I saw of Aryan, I was,
like, rolling on the floor, laughing.
Yeah, I don't know,
but the animals are all set.
[Rick] He not only got the humor,
but he added to it.
And he just brought out
Grover's personality.
[indistinct chatter]
I regret doing that.
Cut that out. [chuckles]
That character needs empathy.
He needs heart, he needs soul.
Aryan, he just exudes it.
It's just in him.
Let alone that he's hilarious.
I'm really humble, and I'd have to say
I'm the best person on set.
That is a very humble opinion.
Yeah, I'm really modest,
but I'm just, like, so good at everything.
-[Rick] Whoo!
-Whoo!
-Let's do this.
-Yeah!
Let's make some cinema really good.
[indistinct chatter]
Aryan, I think flies
into Tartarus today, too.
Don't you get dragged into Tartarus today?
That's later this week. Never mind.
Hey, are they dragging you
to the pits of hell today?
-Oh, no, that's later this week.
-[chuckles] No, that's later.
-What a crazy job we have.
-I know.
One of the things we really count on
in working with our young actors
is the support
of their own personal ecosystem.
-After a day of fire, or sand, or wind
-[dramatic music playing]
-or this monster or that monster
-[monster growls]
slammed around in a car,
after a day at work,
it's really good to go home
and have somebody support the toll
that imagination at this level takes.
-I'm so sorry, Mama.
-[Leah's mom] Look, and I bring her
-to set every day.
-Uno, uno, uno, uno.
In between scenes
when they're not on camera,
the children come into a school space
that we've set up
and they get to be normal kids.
[crew member] Oh, look, here they come.
-[laughs]
-[laughs]
[crew member] We weren't
talking about you.
Did you just hear, like, loud noise
[Rachel] They get to do their schoolwork
and they get to play,
and rest and relax
and interact with each other.
So, basically, I am in eighth grade
and I'm learning algebra,
but, right now, I am learning--
solving equations.
[Rachel] What's your favorite subject,
Leah?
Math.
The main thing we want to do
is even though they're working,
is we want to keep their childhood
as intact as possible
in this kind of crazy industry
that we work in.
[Aryan] It's for
a physics project at school.
-[mellow music playing]
-[Rachel] And a lot of the schooling
can be tailored to their interests--
I mean, Walker loves
the camera department.
Every time I lose him, I know
he's going to be in the camera truck.
And he wants to learn from them,
he wants to learn how to do camera.
Draw on mic.
[Rachel] So we're going to integrate that
into his schooling
so that we don't always have to pull him
from what he loves on set
and put him into a room.
I really messed this up just now.
[Rachel] They do work a lot of hours
when they're a lead
and that's quite intensive.
[Kelsey] These are long days,
and to me it's important
as teachers that we create a space
where kids can be kids on set.
-[Walker] Fire!
-Fire.
-[laughs]
-[laughs]
You have the right to remain silent.
Your all-- All your-- If you say anything
It will be-- Anything and everything
will be held against you
-in a court of law.
-in a court of law.
You have the right to an attorney.
Did you learn this
from watching 21 Jump Street?
Yes.
[indistinct chatter]
[Dan Shotz] There's a lot of fun to be had
throughout the show,
but there's also a level
of emotion and intensity
that requires an epic score.
[players tuning instruments]
[Bear] My name is Bear McCreary.
I am the lead composer
at Sparks and Shadows,
and together we are the composers
for Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
-[instrumental music playing]
-[Bear] Here I am on the scoring stage,
recording original music
for Percy Jackson,
which in many ways is a dream come true.
Percy Jackson is a really dynamic series.
Some of the scenes
that were the biggest challenge
were actually the intimate scenes.
There were a lot of scenes
with Percy and his mother
where he's trying
to be vulnerable with her.
I wanted to make sure
that the emotion is there.
-[rain pattering]
-You are not broken.
-[Minotaur growls]
-[gasps]
[Bear] At the same time,
we're going to end with a big battle.
So I also needed to make sure
that the score had some
sort of cinematic propulsion.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Percy grunts]
-[monster growls]
[Bear] And it's something that we used
to create a really dynamic experience
when you're watching.
[monster groans, growls]
[dramatic music builds]
-[music fades]
-Excellent, let's take a ten.
Nicely done, everybody.
Nicely done.
-[slushie machine whirring]
-Oh, hey.
Slushie machine.
Not something you'd usually see on set.
Unless, you know,
one of the producers is buying.
[upbeat music playing]
-Hey.
-Casino set.
-[Aryan] This is awesome.
-[Walker] We haven't had time to explore.
-[Aryan] There's a slushie machine!
-[Walker] There's a slushie machine.
-There's like four of them.
-Yeah.
[Walker] They built this mall
and then they never ended up using it.
And so we just built this whole set here.
Lotus Casino.
It's huge.
There's like working escalators.
[Jonathan] It's a big hurdle to clear
when a book says
it's a place that seems so fun
and so engrossing we never want to leave,
and then you got to go produce that,
and they did it.
Would it be unprofessional
if we just hung out here for a bit?
Yes, yes, yes.
Today we're in a casino with 400 people.
-It is a lot of people here today.
-[indistinct chatter]
Okay, I just stepped out the elevator
and suddenly I'm in Vegas.
This is crazy. I kind of want to move in.
Another thing we added
to the Lotus Casino, Hermes.
Who was your first choice for Hermes?
-We got him.
-[laughs]
[crowd laughing]
Hey, demigods. Welcome.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton,
he's the coolest guy ever.
We spent, like, a week watching Hamilton
to prepare to meet him.
Gods require maintenance.
-[indistinct chatter]
-Okay.
[Jet] As Lin's going to the table,
look around behind you as well,
going "Where are we?
-"What just happened?"
-Zap.
[Jet] Hmm. Okay. All right.
Being with Lin-Manuel, it was amazing.
He was very chill. He was very funny.
And like, he made me laugh
like, a million, gazillion times.
Tick tock, Mr. Wick.
-I'm here with [laughs]
-Lin-Manuel Miranda.
[Aryan] And I'm going to be interviewing
him in the Lotus Hotel Casino.
This may take forever. Literally.
I didn't know much about Greek mythology
until I started reading
-these books with my kids.
-Yeah. [chuckles]
[Lin-Manuel] I really fell in love
with all of the different myths,
really via Rick's incredible writing
and the way he wove
these original characters
into the tapestry that is Greek mythology.
Come join us.
You kids know how to play craps?
It's so cool that you're here
to be able to play Hermes.
-Like perfect casting. Honestly.
-Oh, thanks.
-[Aryan] How do you identify with Hermes?
-[Lin-Manuel] There's something really fun
about Hermes
'cause he's really hard to pin down.
He's a trickster god,
he's the god of commerce,
he's the god of everything
that goes down in this casino.
He's just kind of the god
of a lot of different little things.
-He's always doing something.
-And that's how I feel, too.
[Aryan] That's a good way to put it. Yeah.
[crew member] And that's a wrap on Lin!
[crew cheers]
This was the happiest two days
of my life, thank you.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
is the coolest guy ever.
That's all I have to say.
He's the coolest dude ever.
-Hi, I'm Walker Scobell, and this is
-Adam Copeland.
Who would win a wrestling match
between you and me?
I mean, do you want the real answer?
We'll go with a draw.
I don't wanna embarrass you
-in front of these guys. [chuckles]
-Sure, sure.
[Walker] When I first got here,
that's all I could think about
is Ares' fight.
I'm going to be fighting Adam Copeland.
That's like career goals.
I mean, that's awesome.
[thrilling music playing]
My name is Adam Copeland,
and I am playing Ares, the god of w*r.
[Leah] He's a wrestler, right?
Everyone's like, "You should be
scared of him in the show," right?
I don't even have to act scared,
I'm scared in real life of this guy.
-That is awesome.
-That's awesome.
He is one of the coolest people
I've ever met in my life.
He plays such a mean character,
but he's so nice in real life.
[chuckles] My armpits are so happy.
Really nice person.
He's like a squirrel. Like a little--
-He's a sweetheart. [laughs]
-That doesn't sound right.
-I mean [chuckles] Like
-A really ripped, six-foot-four squirrel.
He's a huge chipmunk. [chuckles]
[Walker] Single combat.
[Adam] When you hear
that you're going to be doing a battle
with a 13-year-old, I was like,
"Okay, how's that going to work?"
Because usually I'm playing off
of very large human beings.
But it's been great.
[Trevor] Nice!
One more time. Just like that.
-[grunts]
-[grunts]
[Adam] A lot of this stuff
has been pretty physical.
Like I've been whipping him around,
he's like a bobblehead.
But no complaints,
he just powers through
and he's also having a blast. And so am I.
[Walker] I think it's crazy
seeing it come together
and I think it's going to be difficult,
but it's going to be pretty awesome.
-[Trevor] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah, okay, let's do that.
What does the hero's journey
in Percy Jackson mean to you?
So, I love watching the progression.
The hero becoming the hero.
And you always have to have
a great villain to pull those layers out.
So that's been fun with this season,
is I get to be that villain.
-[dramatic music playing]
-[Walker] We've done the fight
a couple times,
but we added a new b*at.
He has to, like, push me
against the ground with the sword.
And he like drags me across the beach,
and it's really scary.
I'm not scared of the stunt,
I'm scared of Adam.
[speaking indistinctly]
[dramatic music playing]
[Adam grunts]
-[grunts]
-[groans]
[Adam] This battle sets the tone.
It's what the whole
first season builds to.
It has to feel epic
and it has to feel huge.
And it's the first inclination
we get of what Percy becomes.
[Jet] This bit, this bit, I love this.
"Whoa, whoa. Whoa"
-That's cool.
-[Jet] That's cool.
The hero's journey
is what makes the entire story.
It's seeing this young boy
blossom into a man.
So that's really exciting to see
Walker take this thing and make it his own
and then see the change happen.
It's fun.
-That was cool.
-[crew laughing]
I'm excited to see
how this plays together.
-[indistinct chatter]
-I'm pretty tired, but
I could do a little bit more.
Yeah. I mean, I love filming,
but I also love sleeping in.
[chuckles]
[crew] Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Walker
Happy birthday to you
For next season
to be a little bit shorter.
-[crew laughing]
-[crew member 1] Keep going.
[crew member 2] Those are never
gonna go out.
-I don't think these ones will go out.
-[crew laughing]
[Heather] For Walker, even though
this is-- It is really hard work,
it's long work, but he loves it.
So, for him, it's fun.
Every second he is up there working,
he's having fun.
So that makes it,
that makes it work for him.
-You love what you're doing all day long.
-[introspective music playing]
[Peter] From day one, he said,
I want to be an actor.
But okay, like,
let's start with something small,
let's start with a play.
And he had passion for that,
and then he went to an acting class.
And as momentum built,
we would help him open the doors,
but he had to go through it on his own.
[indistinct chatter]
[Peter] As a parent,
it was emotional for me
because you see a kid find the thing
that he's supposed to do
at such a young age.
As an adult, like, I'm 45
and I'm still looking for the thing
I'm supposed to do. [chuckles]
But he finds it,
and not only do they find it,
they find it and have so much passion
and desire to learn.
And you realize like the gift
for someone at that age
to have to get an education
in every aspect of film.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[crew member 1] Go for a walk.
[laughs]
[crew member 2] See if you can
go out to the lake.
[crew member 1] Easy now,
keep two hands on it.
[Peter] To be here and to get
to watch my son find this
and become Sorry. [chuckles]
Who he's becoming has been
the greatest gift I could ever ask for.
[indistinct chatter]
[Andrew] One of the things I really,
really loved about this project
was it began with words on a page,
and the words came to be on a page
because a father was trying
to help his son
feel more comfortable in the world.
[emotional music playing]
[Andrew] Which then became the script
for a television series,
which then became a gathering place,
a campfire, if you will,
around which an incredibly
talented group of people
and an incredibly talented group
of young actors came together
to begin our hero's journey
towards the making of Percy Jackson.
-How far she's come.
-Yeah.
[Rick] When we started this
almost a year ago now,
these kids were already
incredibly talented.
Now, somehow, they're even better.
[Virginia] I have watched
these three kids grow up
and become more than who they were
when we started, and it's really exciting.
I'm very glad to be a part of it.
They all work from the soul,
they all work from the heart,
and they all want to live and breathe
their characters.
At the beginning of the season,
Percy didn't want to accept
anything about the gods.
I was like a child,
and at the end I feel like
Percy feels like an adult, you know?
I feel like he accepts growing up.
I'm done running from monsters.
[Jonathan] It's about going through
the process of letting people in
and developing those kinds
of relationships
which are more complicated
than just finding somebody
who knows what it's like to be you.
But it is also, I think, a story about
the strength of their own humanity.
[Dan Shotz] Percy is about this unit.
These three amazing kids
who have to work together.
And it's the same thing
that was with this show.
Every single individual in this room
said, "We are all in" and meant it.
And we all knew we were a part
of something magical,
and relatable, and important.
This has been quite an epic adventure
just in the making
of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
And again, we go back
to the genesis of the story
which began, I think,
from a place of goodwill.
And that's what I've been finding
the entire way through this show,
that spirit of goodwill.
No matter what happens,
we meet back here next year.
All of us. Right here.
[Dan Shotz] These kids have grown up
in so many ways.
Just personally as individuals,
as team members, as leaders of this show,
and as performers.
And it all started with a book
that 180 million people
around the world adore.
We have a responsibility
to what this book means
and what it's trying to say.
[Virginia] I took the job
because of a little boy named Liam.
He's my godson.
And he said, "Virginia,
what have you been doing today?"
And I said,
"I made this audition tape for this show."
And he said, "What? What show?"
And I was like, "Oh, it's this thing
called Percy Jackson."
We were walking down a street
in Queens, he stopped
and his whole body changed
and, like, tears filled his eyes.
And it was at that moment
I thought, "Oh, my God,
this is really important to people
"and this is really important
to someone I love.
"And I want to be a part
of telling a story
"that makes
that child respond in that way."
So that's why I'm here.
The books are really special to me
because it felt good to have them
on, like, a really bad day
or when things were hard.
I have ADHD and I loved how
they empowered kids with ADHD.
I think I've reread all of them
six times so far.
I enjoyed them a lot in third grade
and I still enjoy them now,
rereading them.
I feel like it makes me realize
that I can achieve really great things
in my life, and like,
I don't have to, like, be someone
like, super important or anything.
And that's good enough.
[NYCC host over mic] As you can tell,
it takes more than a village
to create something as epic
as Percy Jackson.
Thank you for making this
an amazing panel, guys.
Give it up one more time
-[crowd cheering]
-for Percy Jackson
-[uplifting music playing]
-[Rick] It's really critical for me
that viewers all over the world
can look at this show
and say, "I could be Annabeth Chase
or Percy Jackson or Grover."
And to see you can be a hero
no matter what you look like,
no matter what
your personal challenges are,
no matter where you come from.
What it's really about is tapping
into the best that's inside us,
drawing on that,
and doing what we know needs to be done
in those hard moments.
And hopefully,
getting to do what needs to be done
with some great friends around you.
[crowd cheering]
[Leah] Ow, Aryan, you're on my foot.
-[Aryan] Oh, my God, I'm so sorry!
-[crowd laughs]
["Percy Jackson and the Olympians" theme music playing]
A Hero's Journey: The Making of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2024)
Moderator: Maskath3