Summary

Collider’s Hannah Hunt talks with Percy Jackson author and creator Rick Riordan for Season 2 of the Disney+ series.

Season 2 centers on choosing sides, questions of loyalty and heroism, and exploring the moral gray areas.

In this interview, Riordan discusses found family, choosing sides, and the series’ focus on those choices versus.

Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians brings the world of The Sea of Monsters to Disney+ with higher stakes, deeper emotions, and a sharper focus on what it truly means to be a hero. Across the first four episodes, Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Grover (Aryan Simhadri), and their expanding circle of allies face not just mythical dangers, but questions about loyalty, identity, and the moral gray areas that define every demigod’s journey. One of the season’s earliest moments — Sally Jackson (Virginia Kull) reminding Percy that being a real hero means standing up for others — sets the thematic tone for everything that follows. To dig deeper into these ideas ahead of Season 2’s two-episode December 10 premiere, Collider’s Hannah Hunt sat down with series creator and author Rick Riordan for an interview about the season’s emotional architecture. From complicated questions of choosing sides to the growing importance of found family, Riordan explains why this chapter of Percy’s story is less about monsters and more about the choices that can pull a family together, or tear one apart.
What Season 2 Reveals About Heroism and Choosing Sides

“This is about choosing sides, and how do you know which side is the right side?”

Percy-Jackson-and-the-Olympians-featureImage via Disney+

COLLIDER: So jumping right into it, right off the bat, I want to talk about Episode 1. Sally tells Percy that being a real hero means standing up for others. I’ve seen through Episode 4, but that is the moment I kept circling back to as I watched the episodes. Sea of Monsters really tests that belief for all of the characters. As the person who created them, what do you think this season reveals about each of their evolving ideas of heroism? RICK RIORDAN: Wonderful question, complicated answer, I think. But really, it is about what is the right thing to do, and how do you know it’s the right thing to do? It is true that standing up for others is important. However, what does that mean? What does that look like when you apply it? This is about choosing sides, and how do you know which side is the right side? Luke, we know he’s the quote-unquote villain, he’s the antagonist, but he’s not wrong. He is acting on principles that make a lot of sense, and the gods are capricious, and they are bad rulers and bad parents sometimes. When do you take the next step and rebel openly against them? Is that the right move? I don’t know that anyone in the season is really 100% sure of that, even Luke. He has conflicted feelings, Percy and Annabeth definitely have conflicted feelings. These are their friends, these are their found family that we’re talking about, and it’s being ripped apart. It’s being ripped in half. I think that’s something we can relate to these days. There are a lot of feelings about families being ripped apart. What do you believe? How do you know it’s the truth? What side do you stand on? How far do you go to support that side? I’m not saying that’s unique to today, but it’s certainly still very true of humans.
Found Family, Forgiveness, and Why Season 2 Feels So Timely

“That is something I think most people could relate to.”

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2Image via Disney+

My next question was actually: the season deals heavily with ideas of found family, forgiveness, and the cost of prophecy, and how you saw those themes resonating with audiences in 2025. You touched on that a little bit, but do you have more to elaborate on? RIORDAN: Sure. I think found family has only become more present and more important. I think it’s always been an important thing that we have, our family that we are born into, but we also find our family, our people, as we get older and explore more of the world. I think the rise of the internet has certainly accelerated that and made it easier to find people who think the same way we do and feel the same way, and have the same likes. That can be an incredibly wonderful thing, but it can also be something that silos us into only finding the people that are like us and that think the same way. That is something I think most people could relate to. Wherever they are and whoever their found family is, they might agree, yeah, that can be isolating, also. It can be a problem. How do we talk to one another if we’re only talking to the people that we like? That agree with us, definitely.
How the Cast Evolved and the Characters Who Surprised Him Most

“And the way those characters become so important and so sympathetic and so lovable so quickly was a surprise to me.”

We can’t talk about the series without talking about the cast. I’m already having such a great time watching them grow into the roles. Was there something the cast brought to their characters in Season 2 that surprised you? RIORDAN: Oh, and just wait until Season 3. I have to throw that out there. It’s amazing to see how much they’ve developed. Oh, you can’t do that to me. RIORDAN: I’m so sorry, but it’s incredible. It’s just incredible. I think one thing that surprised me and really made me happy was the way Daniel Diemer and Dior Goodjohn inhabited Tyson and Clarisse and made them central to the story. We have our sort of golden trio from the first season, but what happens when we break them apart and make them deal with a different dynamic, a different part of the demigod family? And the way those characters become so important and so sympathetic and so lovable so quickly was a surprise to me. I thought that would be a great challenge, but the actors are so good, and the story they’re telling feels so organic and so true that I think the viewers will embrace them immediately. Yeah, as a longtime book reader, I was having such difficulty watching the four episodes and watching Dior in the role and going, “Man, I don’t want to like Clarisse, but I kind of love her.”

Related

‘Percy Jackson’ Stars Compare an Unforgettable Season 2 Moment to Harry Potter’s Magical Legacy

The cast discuss moments of joy they shared on set, digging deeper into their characters, and the challenges they’ll face this season.

The Emotional Groundwork Season 2 Lays for the Future

“It’s more about exploring the dynamics between the characters.”

Annabeth looks up in concern in a yellow Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.Image via Disney+

Without spoiling, what emotional groundwork from Season 2 becomes most important as the story progresses? RIORDAN: I think the real challenge is, okay, we’ve sort of learned who we are. Percy has accepted that he’s a demigod — I have this parentage, these powers, these responsibilities, and I know there’s a big world-destroying or world-building crisis underway. Now it’s more about how am I going to function in this new group? What is my role as a friend to Annabeth? What do I owe my friends? Do I owe anything to Luke? He betrayed me, but he’s still kind of a guy that I look up to, and he taught me the ropes. What’s my relationship with that? It’s more about exploring the dynamics between the characters. They know who they are — okay, what are you going to do with that information? It goes back to choosing sides. How do you show loyalty, and when do you show loyalty?
What Book Fans Should Reassess in the Adaptation

“I guess the lesson of Sea of Monsters is that the journey is difficult, but it is not insurmountable.”

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2Image via Disney+

As longtime readers like myself watch the series, what are you hoping they notice or reassess when watching Season 2? RIORDAN: I hope they’ll say, “Okay, yeah, this is the story I know.” The broad strokes are all the same. We’re going in the same direction, and we’re getting to the same destination, so there’s nothing to be alarmed about in the changes. But I hope they also say, “Oh wow. Seeing Thalia, Luke, and young Annabeth together on screen hits so much more powerfully than it did when Annabeth was just telling us the story.” It’s the same content, but so much more visceral and visual, and I think it will be a real treat for longtime fans. One last thing to wrap up with. You’ve always written Percy’s world with humor, heartbreak, and hope intertwined. What lessons from Sea of Monsters are you hoping young audiences walk away with? RIORDAN: Well, all of those are present. You need humor to put up with the heartbreak, and you need hope to get through it. I guess the lesson of Sea of Monsters is that the journey is difficult, but it is not insurmountable. Even between the impossible choice of Scylla and Charybdis, there is a way through — and there might be a third way you haven’t thought about. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 premieres on Disney+ on December 10.

Release Date

December 19, 2023

Network

Disney+

Showrunner

Jonathan E. Steinberg, Dan Shotz

Writers

Joe Tracz, Andrew Miller

Walker Scobell

Percy Jackson

Leah Sava Jeffries

Annabeth Chase