WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1, episodes 1 & 2!
Disney’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode 1 opens with flashbacks to a younger Percy Jackson, with another actor taking on the role for the brief scenes. Following the portrayal of the titular character by Logan Lerman in the 2010 and 2013 movies, The Adam Project’s Walker Scobell takes over as 12-year-old Percy Jackson in the Disney+ TV show adaptation of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series. However, Scobell isn’t the only actor who gets to play the demigod in the long-anticipated streaming show, as he shares the role with a younger actor during flashbacks to the character’s elementary school years.
Before properly introducing Walker Scobell as the middle school demigod Percy Jackson, the show features flashbacks narrated by Scobell that show young Percy recognizing ways in which he was different from other kids. Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode 1 shows Percy in the second grade seeing a pegasus, a mechanical rhino, and various other mysterious creatures that ultimately get him into trouble at school. Young Percy also appears alongside Sally Jackson in a flashback, in which his mother explains why she named him after Perseus, a hero in Greek mythology. While he does look remarkably like a young Scobell, the Disney+ show’s two Percy Jackson performers surprisingly aren’t related.
Percy Jackson Show’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Debuts 47 Points Higher Than The Movie
The Rotten Tomatoes score for Disney Plus’ Percy Jackson and the Olympians is here, and the new Rick Riordan adaptation has a big lead over the movie.
Young Percy Jackson Is Played By Azriel Dalman
The actor who plays Young Percy Jackson in Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ cast is Azriel Dalman. Unsurprisingly, given how compelling the young actor is during his short scenes in the Disney+ show’s flashbacks, Percy Jackson is far from Dalman’s first professional acting role. Rather, Dalman already boasts over 40 acting credits in addition to Percy Jackson, including appearances in movies and TV shows like Joe Pickett, Moonfall, Joy for Christmas, Debris, and A Season for Family. After numerous stints in Christmas movies and short films, Azriel Dalman now takes on his biggest role yet with Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Why Including Young Percy Is So Important For The Disney+ Show
While the focus of the show is on pre-teen Percy discovering his role in the world as the half-blood son of the Greek god Poseidon, his upbringing is extremely important to the character’s development and later acceptance of his new position. Riordan’s books are able to give substantial context to Percy’s childhood with his mother and feelings of abandonment from his father that can be difficult to portray as effectively on the screen. However, Percy Jackson’s brief flashbacks and narration allow for an important translation of this piece of his character without being distracting from his present-day experiences.
From highlighting Young Percy’s confusion around his differences from his peers and hints at his godly parentage to providing a deeper background on his relationship with his mother, the flashbacks add another layer to the understanding of Scobell’s iteration of the character. There’s much about Percy’s younger childhood that foreshadows his later conflicts and experiences, so Young Percy’s inclusion is significant in emphasizing that his demigod powers and training have been there all along. Additionally, following Sally Jackson’s fate in Percy Jackson and the Olympians episode 2’s ending, the scenes with Young Percy give his mother a more prominent role and necessary screen time.
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
- Genres
- Action , Adventure , Fantasy
- Rating
- TV-PG
- Streaming Service(s)
- Disney Plus
- Franchise(s)
- Percy Jackson & The Olympians
