Percy Jackson’s Walker Scobell Explains [Spoiler]’s Twist Return

Percy Jackson and the Olympians’Walker Scobell has opened up about one of the biggest surprises in the latest episode. With the Percy Jackson Season 2 finale now streaming, the Disney+ series revealed a major deviation from the book canon.

Walker Scobell on Thalia’s return and Percy Jackson Season 2 reveal

Throughout Percy Jackson’s Season 2, the show steadily teased the possibility of Thalia returning. In Episodes 6 and 7, Annabeth pieces together that the Golden Fleece could restore Thalia to life. That theory pays off in the finale when Thalia Grace returns, but with a shocking clarification.

Chiron reveals that Zeus did not transform Thalia into a tree as she was mortally wounded. Instead, Zeus punished her after she refused to fight Kronos for him. This revelation is one of the show’s biggest departures from the source material so far.

For Walker Scobell, the twist immediately clicked. “Oh, I was — I mean, it just makes sense,” he told TheWrap when asked about reading the finale script for the first time.

Scobell explained that, despite being a major change, it didn’t feel like a betrayal of the story. “I think it’s one of those things that as a book reader, I see that and I’m not like, ‘Oh, that changes everything!’ Because it does change everything, but it’s not one of those things that is vital to the story.”

Instead, he believes the reveal strengthens what’s ahead. “It just makes it a lot — I’m looking for a different word than dramatic, but it kind of just ramps it up for Season 3,” Scobell said, directly linking Thalia’s punishment to future fights. “My first thought was like, ‘OK, massive scene with Thalia and Zeus,’” he shared. At the time, Zeus hadn’t yet been cast, which made the moment even more surprising for him as a reader.

With Percy Jackson and Thalia now reframed as a story of defiance rather than tragedy, the finale doesn’t just close Season 2 but sets up the emotional and mythological consequences that will carry directly into Season 3.