Percy Jackson and the Olympians have become the talk of the town. Despite only a handful of episodes having been released currently, the Disney+ show has managed to become extremely critically acclaimed, and adored by fans. on top of this, the book series that it is based on, and its fans are heavily appreciating how accurate the series is, something which is very rarely seen in the case of cinema adapted from classic novels. While there may be many reasons for this, one of the biggest is how well the cast fits the image of fans of these characters.
This is quite the opposite, compared to the 2010 movie, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. This movie famously got many things wrong and made a lot of mistakes, as voiced by author, Rick Riordan, himself.
Also Read: Percy Jackson & The Olympians Episode 3 SPOILER Recap/Review: We Visit The Garden Gnome Emporium
The Percy Jackson Films Had A Lot Of Problems
The Percy Jackson film series that came out in 2010 and 2013, were criticised on a lot of factors. They disappointed fans for many reasons, the biggest being its lack of commitment and loyalty to its source material. Another criticism that fans had was the casting choices. Logan Lerman, who played the title character, was 17 years, old, when he started the first movie, playing the role of a 12-year-old boy. Alexandra Daddario was 23 years old, and a similar theme was seen in the rest of the characters. Characters who should have been played by younger actors were getting played by people almost 10 years older.
“You can’t really do a coming of age story with magic and mystery, and all of that wonderful sort of tween sort of angst and energy, if you’re working with 25-year-olds who are pretending to be 18, as Hollywood so often loves to do – it’s just, it has a totally different tone.”
During a recent interview with RadioTimes about Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan talked about how they did not want to make the same mistake when making the series. He explained that his entire book series is a coming-of-age story, and if this character is getting played by someone much older, pretending to be younger, it would set a completely different tone for the series. He added that though the film industry does aging up for casting quite frequently, they did not want to practice this considering it was one of the reasons why the first attempt failed.
They Would Not Have Made The Show If They Had To Cast Older Actors
Rebecca Riordan, a producer on Percy Jackson and the Olympians, revealed during this interview that one of the biggest goals when making the series, and casting the right people for the roles, was not to age up. This was quite a heavy decision, considering very often, Studios prefer casting older actors, as they are more experienced and easier to work with. She added that if they were forced to hire older actors, there is a possibility that the series would have never been made.
“We wanted to not have it aged up, and so that was very important.” Said Rebecca Riordan, “I think, really, we would not have done this if we had been told we had to hire 18-year-old actors to play these parts.” She went on, “Because it’s not that story. You know, it’s a story of a young boy, you know, finding who he is, discovering who he is, and how he can work with his friends to achieve a goal.”
Echoing what Rick Riordan said, Rebecca Riordan added that this is not a story of someone in their adulthood, trying to blame or pass as a 12-year-old. It is a story of a young boy, trying to navigate a very new world that he has been thrown into, making friends along the way who are going through similar experiences. This is exactly what they did, as Walker Scobell, who plays the titular character, was 13 years old when he filmed the first season of the show, and the rest of the cast, followed suit.
