After years of fans of Rick Riordan’s bestselling Greek mythology books dealing with the disappointment of there not being more Percy Jackson movies when Hollywood failed to adapt the beloved series, things turned around big time when the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show started streaming on Disney+ in 2023. Now, I’m very much looking forward to Season 2 of Percy Jackson since it’s officially on the 2025 TV schedule. There are so many great characters from the books set to debut in the series, and I want to talk about the exciting casting.
One of my favorite things about the first season was seeing all the excellent guest stars embody characters from the book, like Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Hermes, Jay Duplass’s Hades or Jason Mantzoukas playing Dionysus. With Season 2 making The Sea Of Monstersupcoming book adaptations, let’s get into eight new characters that are set to be introduced this time around.
Tyson
The second Percy Jackson book memorably marks the debut of Tyson, Percy’s half-brother and secretly a cyclops. Tyson is a rather tragic character because he lived the early years of his life in a refrigerator cardboard box on the streets of New York. In Sea of Monsters, Percy and Tyson meet at his new school at Meriwether College Prep he attends for seventh grade. Tyson is picked on a lot by other kids, but Percy always sticks up for him. Daniel Diemer, who was amazing in The Half Of It, is set to play Tyson, as announced at 2024’s SDCC panel, and I can’t wait to see their dynamic play out in this season.
Athena
In the first season of Percy Jackson , he gets to meet his famous and all powerful father, Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. And in Season 2, I’m pumped that Leah Jeffries’ Annabeth will be connecting with her mother, Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Andra Day, known best for her singing and Oscar nomination for playing Billie Holiday in 2021, will embody the larger-than-life character from mythology, per Variety. In Season 1, we started getting a sense of Annabeth’s relationship to her mother, and I’m so interested in seeing the mother and daughter interact.
Thalia
One of the most important characters in the Percy Jackson series is about to be introduced as well. Resident Evil’s Tamara Smart is set to play said character, Thalia Grace, per Disney’s announcement. As we learned in Season 1, Thalia is the daughter of Zeus who was a friend of Annabeth and Grover’s prior to Percy coming into the picture. She sacrificed her life to save them both when a horde of monsters attacked them on Half-Blood Hill. But Zeus made sure her soul wouldn’t go to Hades by turning her into a pine tree, which stands at the location of the battle on Half-Blood Hill. While I won’t get into specifics about how we’ll come to meet Thalia, all I’ll say is it’s a big step for the larger series for audiences to meet her.
Gray Sisters
Now, here’s some especially fun casting. Percy Jackson has assembled three very funny women to bring to life the Gray Sisters to adapt their appearance in The Sea of Monsters. The Gray Sisters are a trio of old women that share a single eye and tooth. They are comprised of Anger, Tempest and Wasp. Comedians Margaret Cho, Kristen Schaal and Sandra Bernhard have been cast in the roles, per Deadline, and I just know they are going to have me rolling on the floor laughing with however they decide to portray the characters from Greek mythology.
Circe
Aside from Athena, another Greek goddess is joining Percy Jackson Season 2, and it’s a really exciting one. Circe, who is the goddess of magic, will pop up in the series while Percy is on his latest adventure, per The Hollywood Reporter‘s December casting update. Basically, in the book Percy and Annabeth have to go to the Bermuda Triangle to find a place called The Sea of Monsters in order to rescue Grover. While there they meet Circe, who owns a place called C.C’s Spa and Resort. It’s such a fun retelling of the goddess, and I’m excited to meet her this season.
Polyphemus
Another new character we’ll be meeting in Season 2 is Polyphemus, a blind cyclops, another son of Poseidon, who lives in the Sea of Monsters. In the second book, Grover becomes trapped in Polyphemus’s lair in a wedding dress during his search for Pan. The above photo is from the 2013 movie starring Logan Lerman. I’m so interested how the new Polyphemus will look, and it will be fun to see the plotline with the cyclops play out.
Tantalus
In Sea of Monsters, Camp Half-Blood has a new activities director in Tantalus, replacing Chiron when he was suspected of poisoning Thalia’s tree. He’s another one of Zeus’s children, with an especially terrifying backstory of once cooking his son into a stew and serving it to the gods. When Tantalus takes over, it causes all kinds of problems for Percy and the campers, including by starting up chariot racing at Camp Half-Blood and particularly favors Clarisse LaRue. He will be played by Timothy Simons (most recently seen in Nobody Wants This), per Variety.
Alison Simms
The last of new characters we know are joining Percy Jackson Season 2 is a brand new one not from the books called Alison Simms. Alison will be a Camp Half-Blood graduate who “lives in the human world but is a true believer in the world Kronos is promising.” She’ll apparently be aligned with Luke. Beatrice Kitsos, who has been in a lot of horror projects like 2019’s Child’s Play and 2023’s It Lives Inside has been cast in the role.
There’s certainly a lot of new characters to get excited to see in Percy Jackson Season 2. One of the most fun things about Rick Riordan’s series of books is how he adapts Greek mythology in each adventure, and I’m so interested to see these actors portray these versions of his characters, along with obviously seeing Percy Jackson, Grover and Annabeth go on another quest. The December premiere cannot come soon enough!
