Walker Scobell On Playing Percy Jackson In New Series: Wanted To Give Faithful Adaptation To Fans

There's a hero's journey in every story, says Walker Scobell who wanted to get it right with his iteration of Percy Jackson, the lead pro🦩tagonist of author Rick Riordan's fa🌼mous novel series.

Scobell made a promising debut with Netflix's "The Adam Project", co-starring Ryan Reynolds and Mark Ruffalo, and now leads his own show, "Percy Jackson And The Olympians", adapted from Riordan's book series.

The 14-year-old actor ꦺplays the lead character, the son of Greek god Poseidon, who embarks on various quests to prevent disasters 𝓰in both the mortal and mythical worlds. The character was earlier essayed by actor Logan Lerman in two feature films.

"There's definitely some pressure from ourselves to try to get it right. And we didn't want to let anyone down and give the fans a very faithful adaptation, give the🤡m what they deserve after so many years," Scobell told PTI in a virtual interview.

"It's based on lessons that you ܫlearn in real life. Everyone has a hero's journey to some extent and I think every movie, every character has a hero's journey. And Percy's journey was very defined and I think it was reallyꦫ important to get that right," he added.

"Percy Jackson And The Olympians", which currently streams on Disney+ Hotstar, sees the titular hero journeying across America to return Zeus’ master bolt and 🗹stop an all-out war.

After losinꦬg his mother, Percy is sheltered at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for demigod children. He must prove himself and confront his origins once♋ he discovers he too is a demigod.

Scobell said he was excited to step in and play the iconic role as he is a fan🍨 of the books.

ܫ"We're all pretty big fans before we even started filming. I read the books when I was in fifth grade," he added.

In the series, 𒉰Scobell is joined by actors Leah Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri as Perc♕y's friends Annabeth Chase and Grover Underwood, respectively.

Jeffries, 14, said she was happy to have Riordan's books for reference while she was playing Chase, wh🥃o is the daughter of Greek goddess Athena and has been training at Camp Half-Blood for five years.

"Coming into playing Annabel, it wasn't just like some new character. They're making the show for the first time ever and it had a big backstory. They had movies made on it. So I feel like it was more of an excitement to know that many people have put themselves into this character. And now since I get to do it with a whole💜 series for many years and be this character, I feel like it's even better.

"So reading t🦋🌳he books and watching the movies and seeing how the characters play out and how the chemistry is I definitely feel like that helped a lot with the series also," she said.

Simhadri, a 17-year-old Indian-American actor, described Underwood as the "soul of the group". In Riordan's books, Underwoo🐓d is Percy's best friend and a satyr, a half human and half goat, who is disguised ♕through magic as a 12-year-old boy.

"He tries to keep everything grounded and he's very empathetic, whic🐈h is very helpful when you're dealing with characters like Percy and Annabeth, who really keep everything inside. He is able to have that connection an𒆙d it was something that I talked to Walker and Leah about a lot," he said.

The actor said he wanted the connection between the three characters to appeaꦐr natura🐷l on screen.

"You can't force that kind of connection where you instantly know what they're feeling. You can't have that be artificial. And so that's wಌhat a lot of the discussions at least for my character were aboꦓut with Rick and everyone involved was how to get that connection," Simhadri added.

Created by Riordan and Jon Steinberg, "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" also stars Adam Copela൲nd, Jason Mantzoukas, Timothy Omundson, Suzanne Cryer, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Olivea Morton, Azriel Dalman, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, Virginia Kull, Glynn Turman and Timm Sharp.