NYCC: Disney Gave Us Tons of Content at the ‘Percy Jackson’ Panel

Demigods, we’re one step closer to Camp Half-Blood. Yesterday at New York Comic Con (NYCC), the Empire Stage was surrounded by orange T-shirts as Percy Jackson fans geared up to watch a panel where we got our first sneak peek at the Disney+ show.

The panel featured appearances from the creative team behind the show, including Executive Producer and Showrunner Jon Steinberg, Executive Producer Dan Shotz, Production Designer Dan Hennah, Costume Designer Tish Monaghan, VFX Supervisor Erik Henry, VFX Supervisor Jeff White, and the director of the first two episodes, James Bobin. 

Throughout the panel, the group talked about all the tidbits we’ve been waiting for, from casting big names — such as Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes — and casting our main trio of characters to playing Mario Kart on the Volume stage when they wrapped filming.

“On the last day, when we hooked up the Nintendo Switch to the Volume to play Mario Kart, we got schooled by the kids,” White said. “It was pretty embarrassing.”

Monaghan also talked about the lengthy process that the team took to find the perfect shade of orange for the Camp Half-blood T-shirts. 

“We tested something like 20 different shades of orange in pre-production and we had to find a shade that would work outside under the sunlight, under a gray sky in the forest, in an interior as well,” Monaghan said. “We had to end up dying over 350 T-shirts in almost, like, a witch’s cauldron. And you could only fit 19 T-shirts at a time.”

Of course, the highlight of the panel was the three exclusive clips of the series that have only been seen at NYCC. The scenes included the first seven minutes of the first episode; a conversation with Percy, Sally, and Grover before the minotaur attacks; and the capture the flag sequence. We definitely didn’t cry (We say, being a bunch of liars). 

Attendees also saw the first pictures of Poseidon, Smelly Gabe, Mr. D, Hermes, and Hephaestus in action. The panel also showed off a photo of Lance Reddick as Zeus. Reddick died in March, and Percy Jackson will be one of his final on-screen roles. 

“We all got very close with Lance,” Shotz said. “It was only a short period of time that we worked together but we ended up getting very close to him and we miss him very much. It was a very hard thing for the show and for the cast. But I am so grateful to him that playing Zeus is going to be one of his last performances. It’s so iconic, it’s so powerful. He’s so soulful and has one of his biggest hearts you can imagine.”

The panel closed out with a special appearance from Becky and Rick Riordan. Both Becky and Rick — the author of the Percy Jackson book series — played an integral role in the making of the show. This included dozens of calls during COVID-19 lockdowns in early pre-production. 

“I think it would be extraordinarily difficult to try to do [the show] justice, to do it right, without the person who dreamed it and without the person who really did the work and to find this audience and this fan base,” Steinberg said, introducing Riordan. “Right from the beginning, this has been as much about a partnership as it is about a relationship to make sure that everybody who comes to work on the show knows that this is a family business and this is a story that was hatched from a very personal place. As big as it is and as complicated with as many moving pieces, that’s always where its heart is.”

We will get to see the heart of this new world of Percy Jackson when the eight-episode series launches on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere on Dec. 20. Start planning your blue snacks now!