Attention, Demigods! Disney+’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is less than a week away, which means it’s almost time to see Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief come to life for the first time as a TV show. Part of the excitement that comes with following the adaptation week to week is seeing which actors will embody them, including in incomparable Lin-Manuel Miranda who is set to play Hermes, the messenger of the gods.
The Hamilton playwright and star joined the Percy Jackson cast last November amidst the show being shot. When CinemaBlend sat down with two of the producers of the Disney+ series, they shared the story behind how the big name joined the show. In Jon Steinberg’s words:
I don't think you cast Lin Manuel Miranda overnight [laughs]. That's a couple of conversations. And, I think that was also a moment where you start to feel like everyone who has kids who love this book might just want to be a part of this thing. That there's something really special going on in the way that people connect to the material and what it means to them and what it means to their parents. So, that was neither the first nor the last time that somebody came to do this and it was pretty clear they were doing it 'cause their kids thought it was cool.
As Steinberg shared during our interview, Miranda was one of a few actors they cast who joined the project because of their ties to the novels alongside their own kids. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has been consistently read by kids and adults alike since The Lightning Thief was first published in 2005 and became a bestseller. Miranda’s eldest son, Sebastian, is nine, the perfect age for his father to get bragging rights to him over being part of the Percy Jackson world.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is undoubtedly a busy man who has obtained the notoriety to pick and choose which projects he absolutely feels like he wants to be in, rather than being a starving artist. In recent years, he has been working closely with Disney to bring new music to its films like Encanto and the live-action The Little Mermaid. (He’s amassed a ton of great movie songs already.) It’s not typical for him to guest star in a Disney+ series, but clearly he was passionate about the material!
Miranda plays a rather pivotal role to the first season of the series as Hermes, the messenger of the gods and father to Luke Castellan. The character was previously played by Nathan Fillion in the movies that were among the franchises that got cancelled before all the movies were made. The character is part of Percy’s journey throughout the book series, so it’s quite the investment for Miranda to have joined the project. Of course it’s such a beloved franchise; why would he say no?
Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ first two episodes are set to premiere for those with a Disney+ subscription on December 20 and continue to roll out new episodes in the season on Wednesdays. The first episode will also be screened on Hulu. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more exclusive coverage about the new series.
