The Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians has cast two more of its young heroes.
Leah Sava Jeffries (Empire, Rel) and Aryan Simhadri (Disney+’s Cheaper by the Dozen) will star with Walker Scobell on the show, based on author Rick Riordan’s novel series. You will play Percy’s close friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, commissioned for the series in January, follows the title character (Scobell), a 12-year-old demigod who is just coming to terms with his newfound powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt have bolts. Percy embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to find the Flash and bring it back to Olympus. Filming is set to begin in the summer, Riordan wrote on his website in April.
Grover is a satyr (half human, half goat) disguised as a 12-year-old boy. He cares deeply about others and puts their needs ahead of his own, sometimes at his own risk. He and Percy are best friends, and while he’s cautious by nature, Grover will always join a fight to protect his friends.
Annabeth is a true daughter of Athena with a talent for strategy and an inquisitive mind. Having spent the past five years at Camp Half-Blood, a training facility for demigods, she has few memories of the human world. She trains Percy to survive the mythological world while he becomes her guide to bond with humanity.
Riordan and Jon Steinberg (Black Sails, The Old Man) are co-writing the series pilot, which will be directed by James Bobin. Steinberg and his producing partner Dan Shotz will oversee the series and will executive produce with Bobin, Riordan, Rebecca Riordan, Bert Salke, Monica Owusu-Breen, Jim Rowe, Anders Engstrom, Jet Wilkinson and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and DJ from The Gotham Group his Goldberg. Disney’s 20th television production.
Jeffries is represented by The Osbrink Agency, M88 and Fox Rothschild. Simhadri is represented by Paradigm, Industry Entertainment and Goodman Genow.