The upcoming Percy Jackson & the Olympians Disney+ series should cast all the series’ significant Camp Half-Blood campers now for continuity later in the show. In May 2020, Rick Riordan announced Disney+ is adapting his beloved middle-grade fantasy series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, into a television series. The Adam Project breakout star Walker Scobell will be playing the titular character, a powerful teenage demigod who trains at Camp Half-Blood with other godly children.
Camp Half-Blood and its campers lay at the heart of the book series, which the infamous Percy Jackson movie adaptations completely ignored. When Percy arrives at camp confused and alone, he is greeted with (sometimes tough) love from a new family of demigods and mythological creatures. Some campers are not introduced until far later in the series despite presumably being at camp since Percy arrived. For example, Aphrodite cabin head counselor and head Pegasus equestrian Silena Beauregard, a major character in the final two installments of the five-part series, does not appear in the first book and is only briefly mentioned in passing in the second. Showrunners of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, however, ought to prioritize bringing Camp Half-Blood to life.
To do this, the Percy Jackson & the Olympians television series should cast important campers in later books now. In the first book, Percy is at camp for all of a week before embarking on a quest, so his narration logically does not make note of every community member he meets. However, showrunners should utilize the freedom of television as a visual medium and have characters like Silena in the background of shots. For example, the camera could pan over Silena and her campers when Percy is getting a tour of camp, or a training montage could briefly show Percy interacting with Silena in the stables. The television series should bring Percy’s home to life, succeeding where the Percy Jackson movies failed. Preemptive casting in the name of continuity and worldbuilding is a logical solution.
How Percy Jackson Casting Can Be Better Than Harry Potter
Percy Jackson & the Olympians should learn from the preemptive casting flaws of another significant book series adaptation: the Harry Potter movies. The Harry Potter movies are loved and celebrated for their excellent child casting choices (especially for Harry Potter's “Golden Trio”). However, the series could’ve benefitted from casting important characters in later books earlier on. For example, Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch), a Ravenclaw student in the year below Harry, is introduced in the fifth installment of the seven-part book series. The movies are faithful to the original text by not featuring Luna until the fifth movie. However, since Hogwarts is a fantastical home much like Camp Half-Blood, viewers could’ve been immersed in Harry’s magical day-to-day experience had Luna been cast earlier as a named background character. This wouldn’t have detracted from the movies’ integrity, but instead would’ve further brought Hogwarts to life.
However, the Harry Potter movies also demonstrate how preemptive casting can fail. For example, Gryffindor student Lavender Brown plays an extremely minor role in the books prior to the sixth installment. In the movie adaptations, she is never mentioned by name and only exists as a credited background character. Unfortunately, Harry Potter creatives were forced to switch Lavender Brown’s actress a whopping three times since hiring long-term child actors can be unpredictable. This completely interrupts any attempted continuity.
Percy Jackson’s casting can do better than Harry Potter’s by learning from the latter’s mistakes. The show should hire actors for major characters in later books now whilst remaining thoughtful of scheduling, inter-character chemistry, or other long-term conflicts that could arise. Since production began in early June and remains in progress, Percy Jackson and the Olympians showrunners still have time to thoughtfully cast characters like Silena.