PJO TV Casting (and Re-Casting) Updates You Probably Missed

Article by Red, TheRedSourPatchKid (she/her)

After the castings of major characters like Thalia Grace and Tyson the cyclops, a lot of the other recent castings for Season Two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians have sort of gone unnoticed, which is criminal because these actors are fantastic, and there's also some interesting things going on within the cast. More on that later.

For now, let's take a look at some of the roles that have been cast since Tamara Smart was announced as Thalia Grace. For information on prior castings, check out the article on castings from the second edition of the community magazine.

Starting off strong, Rosemarie DeWitt has been cast as C.C., or Circe, the sorceress who lives on an island and operates a day spa where she turns Percy into a guinea pig. DeWitt has a lot of horror content on her resume such as Smile 2, Black Mirror, and Poltergeist which means she is sure to make a terrifying Circe, if that's what Riordan and the casting directors are going for.

Rosemarie DeWitt (C.C.)

Polyphemus the Cyclops has also been cast, which is interesting because I sort of thought he'd be a CGI kind of thing like in the Sea of Monsters film, except better quality since technology has since evolved. Anyway, Grover's fiance Polyphemus is being played by Aleks Paunovic, who appeared in the television series Hawkeye, War for the Planet of the Apes, and, uh, The Sea of Monsters film as Cyclops #2, so he has experience. This is a trustworthy choice.

Aleks Paunovic (Polyphemus)

And of course, we can't forget the Athena casting, which seems to be the only one that was given a lot of publicity. Musician and actress Andra Day has been cast as the goddess Athena. She doesn't seem to have a whole lot of acting credits, and the ones she has are mostly music related. It seems like her acting career has only taken off somewhat recently with her role in the television series Bel-Air. Nevertheless, it'll be exciting to see what Riordan and the writers have planned for Athena in this season.

Andra Day (Athena)

As far as new characters go, remember a couple of months back when there was an open casting call for Thalia, Tyson, and some new character named Alison Simms? Yeah, they finally announced who'll be playing Alison. Her name is Beatrice Kitsos, and as she's a young actress (18), she doesn't have a whole lot of credits, but she appeared in The Baby-Sitters Club as well as Are You Afraid of the Dark, which Dior Goodjohn (Clarisse LaRue) also appeared in. It was also interesting to see that Kitsos has appeared in horror content such as The Exorcist television show, and Child's Play. The character Alison has been described as a Camp Half-Blood "graduate" who lives in the mortal world and wholeheartedly agrees with Kronos's mission. I for one am eagerly anticipating how big this role is going to be, what it'll mean for the plot, and how the fandom is going to receive this once the show comes out.

Beatrice Kitsos (Alison Simms)

There were also some roles that were recast for this upcoming season.

As was announced on the @percyseries Instagram account, the role of Zeus was filled once again after the passing of Lance Reddick. Courtney B. Vance has stepped into this role, and based on his Instagram comments on the announcement, he seems to understand that he has very big shoes to fill, and is very gracious of this opportunity. Vance's most popular roles are from 80s and 90s films primarily, but you may know him from his voiceover in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.

Courtney B. Vance (left) and Lance Reddick (right) (Zeus)

Interestingly enough, the role of Chris Rodriguez has also been recast. You may recall that this role was not necessarily vital to Season One, but Andrew Alvarez was originally cast in the role and was perceived on social media as being pretty close with the rest of the cast, especially Charlie Bushnell. There isn't any official reason from Riordan or Disney yet on why Alvarez is no longer part of the show, but obviously, the rumors are flying. The first speculation is drawn from sightings of Alvarez attending college during filming windows, which leads some fans to think he was unable to commit to Season Two while being a college student. However, other fans suggest that Alvarez was not invited back for Season Two because he was sharing personal photos and information about other cast members with underage Percy Jackson fan accounts. Specifically, one fan stated that he received photos from Bushnell that while not inappropriate in nature, were not intended to be shared to the public, and then sent them to fan accounts. Again, these are speculations. Right now, the fans don't know why Alvarez will not be returning as Chris Rodriguez, but instead of dwelling on the negative, we're going to report on the new casting.

Andrew Alvarez (formerly Chris Rodriguez)

In place of Alvarez, an actor named Kevin Chacon will be stepping into the role of Chris Rodriguez. He's also a relatively young actor, so he doesn't have a lot of credits other than appearances in television shows and some voiceover work. His most popular role was in a television show called Jessica Jones and a brief appearance in Chicago Med. I for one am not particularly concerned about the actors who don't have a lot of credits; Leah Sava Jeffries only had appeared in a few shows before Percy Jackson, and she's doing a phenomenal job as Annabeth Chase.

Kevin Chacon (Chris Rodriguez- Season Two)

It's interesting that other than Athena and Zeus, these castings haven't been as widely publicized as that of Thalia Grace or of the minor roles that were cast in Season One. We can certainly speculate the reasoning behind this–maybe Disney didn't think the audience would care so much about these castings, or they're trying to avoid some of the drama or hostility that can follow when castings are announced, but again, we can only speculate. What we've learned overall from Season One is that we really shouldn't be over-critical of castings, and we should just trust that Riordan and his team are making the best choices.

What are you most excited to see in Season Two? Let us know in the comments; we want to hear it!