‘Percy Jackson And The Olympians’: Walker Scobell On Season 2 Finale’s Big Reveal & What’s To Come As Disney+ Series Ventures Into “Uncharted Territory” To Adapt ‘Titan’s Curse’

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 2 finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Percy Jackson and his friends have once again staved off a threat against Camp Half-Blood, but in doing so they may have opened a bigger can of worms than they ever expected.

The Season 2 finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians saw Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Grover (Aryan Simhadri) mobilize the rest of the demigods against Luke (Charlie Bushnell) and his ragtag crew of rebels working to resurrect Kronos. After a bloody final battle, Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn) finally completes her quest and heals Thalia’s tree with the Golden Fleece. But, laying the fabled fleece on the tree doesn’t just heal it from the poison, it brings the teenage girl back to life.

While this is where the book Sea of Monsters ends, the show continues on to reveal that they’d all been lied to about the real reason that Zeus turned Thalia into a tree in the first place. It wasn’t, in fact, because she’d sacrificed herself to save Luke and Annabeth. Instead, we learn that Zeus had turned Thalia into a tree to keep her at Camp Half-Blood after the Great Prophecy is revealed to her and she tries to rebel against the idea of being her father’s “weapon.”

Chiron tells the kids that the quest for the Golden Fleece is what made him realize that in the quest to take on the Big Three (Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades), Kronos wants a champion, too — and that just might be Thalia.

In the interview below, Scobell breaks down the filming for the final episode, what that big reveal means for Percy, and what’s to come in Season 3 — which is set to debut later this year.

DEADLINE: Season 2 certainly ends on a big note, not only with the Thalia reveal at the end but the battle leading up to it. What was it like to film all of that?

WALKER SCOBELL: That whole final battle was insane. It was like a week of just sword fighting. When I’m smoking and I fall on the ground, they put a smoke machine in my armor, and it was like blowing smoke the entire time I was falling. That’s not CGI. So it was just kind of a crazy experience. It was massive. There was, I think over 50 or 60 people fighting at all times.

DEADLINE: The story starts to get a lot darker in the last three books, but we’ve started to already see it get more mature in Season 2. You get pretty banged up in this season finale.

SCOBELL: I guess it just kind of shows the brutal reality of the world they live in..this is like a normal demigod thing in a lot of ways, unfortunately for them. I’m really happy that we’re leaning more into that, because it just also shows our characters aren’t invincible. They get hurt, and it’s important to remember that, especially moving forward into all the crazy stuff we have to do in Season 3, and hopefully, if we get renewed, 4 and 5.

DEADLINE: What do you think is going through Percy’s head as he learns that Chiron has had to lie about what happened to Thalia, which changes so much about what they thought they were facing?

SCOBELL: I think he kind of understands that he doesn’t understand yet. I don’t think he thinks it’s bad on Chiron. I think he thinks it, if anything, is more reflection on Zeus, the guy that they’re all sacrificing their lives for. It just kind of changes things a little bit for Percy and and the way that he views fighting for Olympus.

DEADLINE: Percy sort of tells Annabeth that she’s being a little naive about Thalia’s return and the possibility that she could choose Luke’s side in all of this. At this point, do you think Percy is worried about how Annabeth might handle things now that Thalia is back?

SCOBELL: I don’t. She’s made her decision. I think Percy trusts her to make the one that’s right. I think Percy, if it comes down to it, makeS the decision that keeps his friends and family safe. So, I think Percy kind of understands her in that way, you know?

DEADLINE: You recently said in another interview that the role of Percy is still a little daunting to you. In what ways?

SCOBELL: Well, I think, it’s not very daunting when I’m on set. I try really hard every day, and I’ve gotten the hang of just getting there and being Percy. But what is scary is when I go to places like Brazil and San Diego Comic Con. I see how many people really love it. And then I’m like, ‘Oh, wow. I would be in this crowd if I wasn’t doing this job.’ I love going to those things, because it keeps me working hard and it inspires me to try harder every day.

DEADLINE: There’s already been some big changes from the books. As a fan of them, how do you feel about the ways that the show has altered the story?

SCOBELL: Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely some changes. As a book fan, there’s definitely times where, changes happen, and I read it, and I’m like, ‘What? How does that work? How does that make sense?’ And then I talk to the producers, and then — this happens all the time — I’ll see the final cut [or] I’ll see how it works out [when] I’ll get there on the day, and then I’ll go, ‘Oh, okay, that does make sense.’ It’s just hard reading it. It’s hard to imagine this change, especially because done a certain way and it’s been set in stone for like 20 years, and now, in a weird way, we’re kind of expanding the world with the changes, you know what I mean? I think it’s fair to say that. Things are a little bit different. It’s never going to be perfect, going from the book to live action, but I think we still keep a lot of the core things that make it Percy Jackson.

DEADLINE: What was the most challenging aspect of Season 2?

SCOBELL: I think the most difficult part of filming for me was I’m playing a 13-year-old. I turned 16 during filming. A lot of the first season, I didn’t have to try. I mean, I did have to try, but…I was 13 the whole time, and I just kind of felt like him. But this time, it’s difficult because I’m playing down for my age a lot, or at least it felt like it. It feels like a big jump from 13 to 16, and I still wanted to capture Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, that same version that’s in the book, but also not completely disregard who I am now. So I think it was fun, that balance between those two things.

DEADLINE: How has that changed as the production schedule has sped up and the content has also matured?

SCOBELL: That’s been really nice for me recently, because I didn’t have to think about that going into Titan’s Curse and, hopefully, going into Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian, because it matures so fast. There’s things that, I don’t know, personally, never really changes in a lot of ways, but I don’t think I’ve ever really changed in those same ways. So it was easy for me to just pick it up and get right back into it as the person who I am now.

DEADLINE: Have you noticed the chemistry between you, Aryan and Leah develop more? How does that alter things on set?

SCOBELL: I think we’ve all just gotten closer over time. It’s not really something we’ve ever had to think about, because we just kind of take it right up where we left off — the same thing Percy, Annabeth and Grover do. It’s evolving every single day we work together. We’ve known each other longer than Percy, Grover and Annabeth have, and which is a weird thought, but it’s true. So I think it’s not too hard for us all to kind of snap back into that.

DEADLINE: You’ve spoken very highly of the way that Rick Riordan gave you space to find your version of Percy. You said that he’d always just be very encouraging and assure you that you knew what you were doing, even when you were quite young. How do you feel like that’s helped you find your version of Percy Jackson across these three seasons?

SCOBELL: It’s been great. I’ve had a lot of great encouragement. Logan Lerman said so many great things, and Rick said so many great things. I do feel very comfortable going into Season 3, which has this version of Percy’s never been seen before. I am very excited for Season 3, because this is like my version now. They have the first two movies for The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters. I’m moving into uncharted territory with The Titan’s Curse. I just get to do my own thing with it.

DEADLINE: How are you feeling about the fact that you’re now adapting material we’ve never seen in live action before? Any nerves?

SCOBELL: I’m definitely a little bit nervous, but at the same time, it’s such a great book to adapt to television, because there’s not really anything we have to remove. I mean, obviously there’s some changes here and there, but for the most part, it’s almost written perfectly for a TV show like this. So I think that’s my favorite part. There hasn’t been really any times yet where I’ve read it and someone’s had to explain to me how it’s going to work, because it’s really just very similar to the book.

DEADLINE: I’m sure that fans will be very excited to hear that. What else should we look forward to about Season 3?

SCOBELL: It’s a lot more mature than Season 1 and 2. The end of Season 2 really sets up the tone for Season 3. It’s written for a little bit of an older audience. They’ve expected our audience to have gotten a little bit older than Season 1 and 2. So I’m really excited for that to happen.