Warning: This article contains spoilers for Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1 and the Percy Jackson books.
An intriguing song choice for Luke from one Percy Jackson and the Olympians actor foreshadows a huge tragedy from the book series. Although Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1 makes changes to the books, it also introduces numerous Easter eggs and subtle clues about expected storylines in any subsequent seasons. For instance, a young Percy sees a black Pegasus in the pilot, setting up his Pegasus Blackjack’s introduction for a potential season 2.
Without deviating drastically from the spirit of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson book series, the Disney+ adaptation places a heavier focus on individual characters’ story arcs, given that there’s a luxury of recounting the events beyond only Percy’s perspective. This allows characters like Annabeth and Luke to be more complex by Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ season 1 ending. Moreover, because of Luke’s villainous side in the Percy Jackson universe, adding weight to his backstory by including Hermes and his mother May’s sad Seer circumstances complicates Percy’s friendship with him and his anticipated fate.
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Charlie Bushnell Made A Swan Lake Song Luke’s Anthem For Percy Jackson Season 1
Adding to Luke’s eventual antagonist reveal at the end of season 1 is his actor Charlie Bushnell’s chosen anthem for him. In a Cosmopolitan interview, Bushnell shares, “[Swan Lake’s Op. 20, Act 2] just perfectly fits Luke in so many different ways, his overall arc as a character and kind of what he’s feeling internally.” Additionally, Bushnell explains how he stumbled across the song on “a 19th-century villain playlist” on YouTube. The song is a recurrent musical motif from the Swan Lake ballet, whereby Odette shares her curse of turning into a swan with Prince Siegfried.
Moreover, a classical music choice aligns with the score designed for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Particularly, composer Bear McCreary explains, in designing the score, he and his team focused on creating musical themes for the main trio (via Hollywood Records). For example, Percy’s theme is “aspirational,” involving synchronous French horns. Thus, Bushnell’s attribution of the Swan Lake song as a theme for Luke ties into McCreary’s overall aim of conducting music that gives each character an emotive, complementary element to their individual story arcs.
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What Bushnell’s Music Choice Reveals About Luke’s Future In The Percy Jackson Series
Leaning into how Percy Jackson and the Olympians‘ score moves the characters’ stories forward and aligns with their overall themes. Similarly, Bushnell’s Swan Lake choice emphasizes the key parts of Luke’s journey throughout the story. Much like Odette in Swan Lake is turned into a swan by the evil Baron Von Rothbart, Luke is turned to a more villainous side by Kronos’ exploitation of his pain and hatred for the Olympian gods. This amplifies the Percy Jackson god criticism since their absent parenting directly affects Luke’s turn to villainy.
Although Luke’s character is even better in the Percy Jackson show, he is still an antagonist because of his involvement with Kronos. However, he ultimately sacrifices himself in The Last Olympian to prevent Kronos’ full return. This redemption aligns with the Great Prophecy stating a hero would die to either save or destroy Olympus. Luke’s death correlates with Odette and Siegfried choosing to die, destroying Von Rothbart and restoring the other swans to their human forms. Interestingly, Bushnell’s Swan Lake choice for Luke from Percy Jackson and the Olympians teases how heartbreaking his character’s demise is in the book series.
Sources: Cosmopolitan, YouTube/André Previn – Topic, YouTube/hollywoodrecords
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
- Release Date
- December 20, 2023
- Cast
- Walker Scobell , Leah Sava Jeffries , Aryan Simhadri , Jason Mantzoukas , Megan Mullally , Glynn Turman , Adam Copeland , Virginia Kull , Lance Reddick
- Seasons
- 1
- Writers
- Rick Riordan , Jonathan E. Steinberg
- Streaming Service(s)
- Disney Plus
- Franchise(s)
- Percy Jackson & The Olympians
- Directors
- James Bobin , Anders Engström
- Showrunner
- Jonathan E. Steinberg , Dan Shotz
