The Sea of Updates: What's Happening in PJO TV

By Red,  TheRedSourPatchKid (she/her)

Many of you have been following and eagerly awaiting updates on Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Season Two which is to be based on Rick Riordan's shortest novel in the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, The Sea of Monsters. With Luke being revealed as a villain, Percy about to gain a new brother, and Grover about to sport a fabulous wedding gown, the media and our beloved fandom are buzzing with the news awaiting this season. This month held a ton of exciting events, including casting announcements, and Disney's annual D23 convention, which for those of you who don't know, is a biennial event that essentially gathers all kinds of Disney fans who want to hear about the latest Disney updates, which range from Pixar sequels, to Broadway musicals, to Marvel and Star Wars installments, to—yep, you guessed it—Percy Jackson updates.

Let's get into the news you actually care about: Tyson, the Gray Sisters, a new teaser trailer, and what's to come.

Ahead of D23, Rick Riordan and the Percy Jackson TV Instagram account (@PercySeries) announced that the actor for Tyson, Percy's loveable Cyclops brother, has been cast and has joined the other actors on set for filming. His name is Daniel Diemer, and he has worked with the Disney company in the past as a character on a Hulu series called Under the Bridge and on a 2023 drama film called Little Brother, as a main character named Jake. Please be advised that both of these works seem to deal with some dark themes. Diemer's most popular role to date has been as Paul Munsky on The Half of It, which you can watch on Netflix. For the rest of Diemer's acting credits, please look him up on IMDb! He's got a lot of awesome work under his belt and seems pretty qualified to play the role of our beloved Tyson!

Diemer also seems to have acclimated well with the rest of the cast, as he has been featured in some of their Instagram posts, and even wore matching necklaces with Walker Scobell at the D23 convention. Obviously, everyone should tread lightly when delving into actors' personal lives, but for those of you who are looking for a surface-level description: Diemer is twenty-eight years old, and is currently in a relationship with an actress, so maybe keep the celebrity-crushing to a minimum here.

Daniel Diemer and Walker Scobell

But wait! There's more! We haven't even gotten to D23 yet!

The convention that took place August ninth, tenth, and eleventh brought us lots of information about Season Two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, including some more casting announcements and a teaser trailer!

Fans learned who will be playing the Gray Sisters, most commonly known as the three Fates. Everyone remembers that them in that horrific taxi cab scene from The Sea of Monsters film featuring Logan Lerman (gods love him) as these weird looking CGI blue-ish people that all kind of had the same voice. Also Yvette Nicole Brown from Community was there. Or is that just me? Anyway, new people got cast to play them, and we're super excited to see them in action! This article only offers a taste of their credits, so be sure to check out their IMDbs for more information! Who knows? Maybe one of these actresses was in your favorite show or movie!

Up first is Sandra Bernhard, who, let's be real, you might not know, but your parents might know of her. She is most known for her standup comedy, but she is also recognizable from her role on the television show Roseanne (again, ask your parents). She has also appeared on Will & Grace, The L Word, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. One thing that I think is super cool about her is that she has appeared in multiple television shows and films as "herself."

Next, we've got Kristen Schaal, who you definitely know in some capacity. She is primarily known for voiceover work, and you may recognize her from her role as Mabel in Gravity Falls or as Louise in Bob's Burgers. She has also appeared in Toy Story as that dinosaur Trixie, The Simpsons, Big Mouth, Amphibia, and something called Thelma the Unicorn which came out recently on Netflix. Basically, she's iconic, and we're really excited to welcome her into our fandom. I can already hear her scream as the taxi makes an unexpected swerve...

And last but not least, Margaret Cho will be playing the third Gray Sister. Like Bernhard, she is a stand-up comedian, which seems to allude that the Gray Sisters will step into a more comedic role than the one they played in The Lightning Thief. You may recognize her from works such as Prom Pact, and All-American Girl. She was also featured on Family Guy and The Masked Singer as the Poodle. Cho is openly bisexual and an outspoken supporter of the LGBT community, so much so that it says so on her Wikipedia. In my research, I've learned that Cho has an incredibly interesting backstory leading up to her gaining momentum as a comedian and actress, and I would definitely recommend that everyone check that out, but please keep in mind some of her story does include sexual assault of a minor and other potentially triggering subjects.

Left to right: Kristen Schaal, Sandra Bernhard, and Margaret Cho, the Gray Sisters

After all of this buzz, folks at the D23 convention (and those of us who spend our time watching the livestream and refreshing our Instagrams) were treated to a Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season Two teaser trailer. This next part of the article summarizes the trailer, so if you're trying to avoid trailer spoilers, scroll away now.

The teaser trailer uses primarily footage from Season One of Percy Jackson and the Olympians with Walker Scobell's (Percy's) voiceover layered over it. Since Season one, Scobell's voice has deepened significantly, which didn't really come as a shock to the fandom, but was still notable. The only new footage were some nature shots and some stills of Scobell as Percy in a chariot. "Riptide" by Vance Joy was absent from the trailer, and no characters other than Percy Jackson himself were featured. However, the trailer did announce that Season Two is currently in production, and other sources have suggested that Season Two could come out as early as 2025.

Actors including Walker Scobell, Daniel Diemer, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, Toby Stephens, and Lin Manuel Miranda were pictured attending the D23 convention as panelists, which suggests they will all be making appearances in Season Two.

New PJO TV Season Two Poster

To be clear, the casting of Tyson and the Gray Sisters is incredibly exciting, and the fandom is excited to welcome these incredibly talented people. Also, the teaser? Hello, Sailor! However, some whisperings from that fateful day at D23 led to a lot of people thinking that a Thalia Grace casting announcement was upon us. This, along with the announcement of who will be playing a new character named Alison are still to be announced, so stay tuned for more updates!

If you, the readers, are interested in a full frame-by-frame, line-by-line breakdown of the new teaser trailer, let us know in the comments! I aim to please, and would be happy to provide in the next issue of New Rome Living.

What are you most excited to see in Season Two? Let us know in the comments! →