Original subtitles

This is going to be so sick.

- Luke, everything going good? - Yeah.

All right.

Three, two, one. Action!

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.

The world of Percy Jackson is an incredible canvas.

It demands that it have the kind of execution

that I think we've all committed to.

Growing up with such an iconic series...

it's insane being able to bring that to life.

This is a big story.

I mean, dare I say epic? That's a good Greek word.

What is happening right now?

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.

That was amazing.

I've never seen anything like this.

He was so committed all season.

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.

Welcome to you all. Welcome to New York Comic Con,

I hope you feel the love. You guys feeling good?

- Yeah, thank you so much. - Hey, everybody!

John and Dan, let's start with you guys...

There are 180 million copies of Percy Jackson sold around the world.

That responsibility to the fan base was a lot of pressure.

Rick and Becky Riordan, everybody!

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...

It was gonna make the difference

of this working or not working.

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.

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.

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.

When we started this process,

we knew in casting Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, we had a tall order.

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.

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.

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.

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.

- 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." - You had to do that?

- I had to do that. - What?

I think it's the first time I'm hearing of this.

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.

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.

- Andrew... - Super cool.

- Yeah. He's super funny. - He's very smart.

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?

...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.

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. - Lovely.

It's not like we're just throwing it out there.

Every single line means something, and it's not just a throwaway.

What's the word for glory?

- Kleos. - 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.

A quest is a sacred thing.

And to be charged with one

is to be in conversation with the gods themselves.

There is no way this is what sacred smells like.

We're soldiers on a mission. It's not a vacation.

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.

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... ...it takes a lot.

It takes physical locations.

We also have virtual environments

brought to life by Industrial Light and Magic.

Scene one, take one, day one, action.

That's a lot of ones.

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.

Instead of having to travel to all these locations,

we're bringing the locations to us.

It's really cool. One second, you're in New York,

and the next second, you're 3,000 miles away from that.

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.

Within the computer, all of this exists as a 3D scene,

which we can move around and we can manipulate as we want.

Sometimes it's something as easy as moving a tree around.

And it creates these backgrounds that you're seeing in the camera.

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.

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?

It's truly amazing.

You basically don't have to use your imagination.

Which is great for me because I have none, whatsoever.

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.

Car crash?

Today is the Minotaur car crash. Yeah.

I'm going to spritz your face. One, two, three.

That's nice.

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.

Here it comes. Hit!

Cut!

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.

- Morning. - You gotta stand like this.

- Morning. - Power pose.

It's real metal.

It definitely is.

- Also, it's totally deadly. - Yes.

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.

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.

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...

- Louis Vuitton. - Yeah, Louis Vuitton.

And this is Gucci.

His stuff just came from-- I don't know.

This is Goodwill.

It's a ten-dollar outfit, I think.

When we were talking to the props department about Riptide...

Swords. Shields. Pen.

...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.

Well, don't tell anybody, but I'm stealing that sword.

I don't care what anybody says. I'm taking that home.

We really found some of the best people...

...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. - Worst nightmare.

If I saw a plastic one move or something, I would have died.

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.

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 tank of water

where Percy and Annabeth come to retrieve Ares's shield.

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?

I wouldn't mind if you did that.

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.

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.

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.

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. - ...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...

...on my forearm.

Charlie?

Walker, wh... ...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.

I was a military 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...

He is fantastic as Percy.

And he's lovely to work with and he's a really great actor.

Clarisse is a complicated one. She is his nemesis at the beginning.

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.

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.

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!

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, shooting in water is not easy.

We chose very much to shoot practically, because I love the experience

for the actor of being in the environment of water.

We're at a training facility in Vancouver.

This is where we've been working with Walker, training him.

- Hi. - Two weeks of getting in in a costume.

I know.

- Look at you. - It feels gross.

It feels like... well, cold because I didn't like wearing wetsuits.

I'm getting used to it.

- There you go. - 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.

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.

The commitment for a 13-year-old,

I have never seen anything like it.

He's put in a tank.

He was underwater for most of the day with scuba gear.

And this is really complicated work.

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... - And then we'll take--

- How many times do I have to do the jump? - Twice.

Twice.

No turning back now.

Okay. Here we go.

And it's on you, buddy.

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.

Trust yourself. Just breathe.

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.

Three, two, one, action.

Working with the kids in the water was awesome.

We're noticing that like, "Oh, yeah, we need to get out of this boat

"before something happens." That's when we...

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."

Action. And jump!

Yeah! And cut. Good job, guys.

And they nailed it. I was so proud of them.

Yeah! It looks awesome!

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Good, let's cut. Nice, Leah.

Whatever we do, we have to make sure this door does not open.

They're not done with us.

She's learning to hunt. And this seems like the hunting part.

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 attacked from the same place that we attacked 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.

Come with us and you will suffer less pain.

Hi, I'm Megan Mullally and I play Mrs. Dodds, slash, Alecto.

Mrs. Dodds? You okay?

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.

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.

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.

We'd seen a number of iterations...

...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.

- He is brutal. He is relentless. - He is wearing underpants.

The Minotaur, we've been working on that creature for quite a bit.

Even before they started shooting that sequence,

we had to develop his character and get all the detail on the face

and we have some close-ups.

We have brought in the best of the best to bring these things to life.

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...

...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.

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.

Okay. Well, you're doing great.

What do you think of this shot? Pretty good, huh?

- I love it. I think this is amazing. - You'll make this business...

But let's just completely change it.

Copy. You're funny.

How hard could this be?

What's been the most fun part of this show is these kids' enthusiasm

for the stunt work.

We have such a great stunt team who are so collaborative.

But Walker is obsessed.

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.

Go!

I have so much respect for that kid. This is a long shoot.

He is in, like, every single day

and he still is able to keep such a good energy.

Watching him get to perform his own stunts,

it's like watching your kid at a sports game.

- Did you watch the playback? - Is it cool?

It's really cool.

Right now I'm doing a stunt

where I get to fall off the St. Louis Arch.

This is going to be so sick.

- Luke's being a slack off. - It's gonna be super fun.

My name's Corbin. I'm with the stunt team.

This shot 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.

- And then throw back. - Yeah, there you go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

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...

It's a lot of stuff going on at once, you have to really pay attention.

The first transition. There we go.

Ready? And action!

So unfair.

You never had a chance, did you?

And drop!

- Three, two, one, drop! - Drop. Drop.

Drop! Drop.

Yeah.

- Nice work. - Nice.

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.

- We're flying? - 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.

Aryan's about to be snatched up by Cerberus.

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.

It's scary.

Ready, and turn!

Go, go, go, go!

This is pretty cool to watch.

It's a little hard not to laugh

because... ...one second you're running and I'm like,

watching him run and then he just gets...

Grover!

- Resetting. - I wanna see the playback

- on that, that was actually really good. - 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.

- 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.

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... ...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.

We are applying

the slobber of the Cerberus three-headed dog.

So this is Grover coming out of the mouth.

You are a bad, bad dog.

No shower I take will be long enough.

I don't think you need to shower.

Aryan Simhadri is the heart of this show. His warmth, his vulnerability.

This seems dangerous.

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.

He not only got the humor, but he added to it.

And he just brought out Grover's personality.

I regret doing that. Cut that out.

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.

- Whoo! - Whoo!

- Let's do this. - Yeah!

Let's make some cinema really good.

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. - 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...

...or this monster or that monster...

...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. - 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.

Oh, look, here they come.

We weren't talking about you.

Did you just hear, like, loud noise...

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.

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.

It's for a physics project at school.

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.

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.

They do work a lot of hours when they're a lead

and that's quite intensive.

These are long days, and to me it's important

as teachers that we create a space where kids can be kids on set.

- Fire! - Fire.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You... are not broken.

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.

And it's something that we used to create a really dynamic experience

when you're watching.

Excellent, let's take a ten.

Nicely done, everybody. Nicely done.

Oh, hey.

Slushie machine.

Not something you'd usually see on set.

Unless, you know, one of the producers is buying.

- Hey. - Casino set.

- This is awesome. - We haven't had time to explore.

- There's a slushie machine! - There's a slushie machine.

- There's like four of them. - Yeah.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Okay.

As Lin's going to the table,

look around behind you as well, going "Where are we?

-"What just happened?" - Zap.

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... - Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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.

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.

- How do you identify with Hermes? - 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.

That's a good way to put it. Yeah.

And that's a wrap on Lin!

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. - Sure, sure.

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.

My name is Adam Copeland, and I am playing Ares, the god of war.

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.

My armpits are so happy.

Really nice person. He's like a squirrel. Like a little--

- He's a sweetheart. - That doesn't sound right.

- I mean... [chuckles] Like... - A really ripped, six-foot-four squirrel.

He's a huge chipmunk.

Single combat.

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.

Nice! One more time. Just like that.

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.

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.

- 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.

We've done the fight

a couple times, but we added a new beat.

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.

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.

This bit, this bit, I love this. "Whoa, whoa. Whoa"

- That's cool. - 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.

I'm excited to see how this plays together.

I'm pretty tired, but...

I could do a little bit more.

Yeah. I mean, I love filming, but I also love sleeping in.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday, dear Walker ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

For next season to be a little bit shorter.

Keep going.

Those are never gonna go out.

I don't think these ones will go out.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Go for a walk.

See if you can go out to the lake.

Easy now, keep two hands on it.

To be here and to get to watch my son find this

and become... Sorry.

Who he's becoming has been the greatest gift I could ever ask for.

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.

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.

When we started this almost a year ago now,

these kids were already incredibly talented.

Now, somehow, they're even better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

...for Percy Jackson...

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.

Ow, Aryan, you're on my foot.

Oh, my God, I'm so sorry!