Seaweed brain is here! Walker Scobell plays Percy Jackson in Disney+’s fantastical live action series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which premiered on December 20, 2023. Keep reading to learn more about the actor who plays Percy.
The series, which is based on the highly popular five-book series written by award-winning author Rick Riordan, follows 12-year-old Percy Jackson after he discovers he is the son of a Greek god, opening an entirely new world of mythology, sword-fighting, friends — and summer camp. The book series was originally published in 2005 and has gone through one attempt at screen adaptation in 2010 and 2013, which starred Logan Lerman as the titular star.
Prior to PJO, Walker is known for his performance as young Ryan Reynolds in the movie The Adam Project and is starred alongside Owen Wilson in Paramount’s family action movie Secret Headquarters. The young star, 14, is almost the exact same age as Percy in the book series, a small but important detail for fans since the prior adaptation failed to follow many of the book details, including the lead characters’ ages.
“Walker Scobell is an incredibly talented young man who blew us away with his audition tapes for the role of Percy,” Riordan, who is writing and executive producing the series, wrote on his website.
“Many of you recently discovered how great Walker is when you watched his movie The Adam Project, in which Walker lit up the screen as a younger version of Ryan Reynolds’ character. We were fortunate enough to audition Walker months before that movie came out, but the film only confirmed what we already knew about his talent. It was obvious to me and the rest of the team that Walker had the perfect mix of comedic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark and heroism to embody our hero Percy Jackson.”
Riordan also stated his excitement with Walker’s affinity for stunts, since the show will cover a lot of action and swordplay. “Walker is an avid skateboarder and skier, and is super excited to get to Vancouver and start working on swordplay, holding his breath underwater, and other stunts of derring-do.”
Scroll below for everything we know about the actor behind our favorite demigod, Percy Jackson.
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