Disney Plus’s Percy Jackson series finds its lead actor

Disney has cast the titular character in the highly anticipated Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Walker Scobell of Netflix’s The Adam Project will play the 12-year-old demigod in the Disney Plus series. Author Rick Riordan penned a blog post on his website, announcing the casting.

“Aside from being a rising star, Walker is also a super-fan of the books, having read everything through The Trials of Apollo,” wrote Riordan.

Image: Getty Images for Netflix

Previously, Logan Lerman portrayed the character in the film adaptation — much to the disappointment of fans. In the books, Percy is 12 years-old and the series follows him as he grows up. The movie adaptation aged the character up to 16. Riordan has spoken openly about his grievances with the movie, particularly when it came to aging up the characters.

The best-selling middle grade series takes place in a world where all Greek myths are true and focuses on the demigod children of Greek gods and goddesses, who all attend a summer camp called Camp Half-Blood. The initial series focused on Percy and his friends Annabeth and Grover. The first sequel series blended elements of Roman mythology into the world and a few spinoff series took on Egyptian and Norse mythology. There is also another sequel series to the main Percy Jackson books called Trials of Apollo.

Unlike the film adaptation, Riordan will be heavily involved with the Disney Plus adaptation. He is writing the pilot episode, along with Jon Steinberg. with James Bobin directing. Filming will begin this summer in Vancouver.