‘Percy Jackson & The Olympians’ Creator Rick Riordan Makes Surprise Appearance At NYCC Panel & Fans Get Preview Of Premiere Episode
15.10.2023 - 22:33
/ deadline.com
He wasn’t on the speakers’ list, but Percy Jackson & The Olympians creator Rick Riordan staged a surprise last-minute walk-on Sunday at New York Comic Con with his wife Becky Riordan.
The couple closed out a jam-packed panel for the upcoming Disney+ adaptation of author Riordan’s beloved, modern-day-mythological fantasy novels about a boy who learns he is the half-human son of the sea god Poseidon.
“Let’s go to Camp Half-Blood and play capture the flag,” a smiling Riordan said from the stage, introducing the last of three exclusive sneak-peak clips from the series, which premieres December 20.
A capacity Comic Con audience — many already in orange and black Camp Half-Blood t-shirts handed out at the door — cheered inside the mammoth exhibition hall at Manhattan’s Javits Center. Then came a five-minute reel showing Percy, played by Walker Scobell, in a crucial early test of his fighting skills at the sleep-away camp for young demigods-in-training.
Fans also saw a clip of the first seven minutes of the premiere, which traces Percy’s story back to second grade, and then a harrowing chase sequence with Percy, his mother Sally (Virginia Kull) and friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri), trying to outrun the dreaded Minotaur in a beat-up subcompact.
The seven announced panelists were part of the creative team behind the camera, with showrunner-writers Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz and the director of the two-episode premiere, James Bobin, fielding questions alongside production designer Dan Hannah, costume designer Tish Monaghan, and visual effects supervisors Erik Henry and Jeff White.
Steinberg immediately credited the close involvement of Riordan — at that point still secreted away someplace backstage — with bringing the