We learned Lance Reddick died at the age of 60 over two years ago now, but it’s still hard to wrap our heads around the loss. One of his last roles was Zeus in the first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which is set to continue for the 2025 TV schedule. And since Zeus is the king of all gods, he was recast, with Courtney B. Vance announced to be taking over the role in late 2024. Key names from the series have now broken their silence about passing the torch to Vance, and their comments are getting me emotional.
Ahead of Season 2 of Percy Jackson arriving on Disney+ this December, its star and producers shared the process behind replacing Lance Reddick as Zeus after his death. Executive producer Craig Silverstein shared this to Entertainment Weekly:
Courtney was so great when he showed up — he made this speech to the cast and crew honoring Lance and saying that he knew what the responsibility was about stepping into the shoes of that performance. And it ended up being very emotional but very, very fulfilling. We were certain we had made the right choice before, but we were really certain when he gave that beautiful speech on the set before stepping in front of the camera.
As Silverstein shared, Courtney B. Vance, who recently showed up in Lilo & Stitch and Grotesquerie, didn’t take the role lightly when he turned up on set to play the new Zeus. He took time to honor Lance Reddick (who was also important to the John Wick franchise along with The Wire) through a “beautiful” speech, and even got the seal of approval from Reddick’s wife, Stephanie. As Percy Jackson himself, Walker Scobell shared with the magazine:
Lance’s wife came out to watch [Courtney] do the scenes. He did such an amazing job. He honored Lance spectacularly.
Reddick died in March 2023, reportedly of heart disease eight months before Season 1 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiered. Apparently, the Percy Jackson producers “talked and worried” about how to go about the casting “endlessly” before deciding to find a new actor for the role. Author Rick Riordan (who is also a producer on the series) had this to say about the recasting process:
Courtney’s incredible. Like so much casting, it was just fortuitous that we got the right person at the right time. I’m so delighted and so grateful that he was able to step in. Zeus being the king of the Gods, he’s important, but he doesn’t show up on screen a lot, but it’s important when he does because he has such gravitas. And Courtney did a great job with it, so we lucked out.
Riordan apparently had “a lot of conversations” with Vance about “how to honor Lance’s legacy and this huge hole that that left in the series,” as well. Ultimately, the series producers decided that the show wouldn’t explain why a new actor is playing the role of Zeus since the god can choose to look however he wishes.
Riordan hopes the transition will “feel organic” thanks to Vance’s performance in the season and teased he thinks it “feels pretty seamless” within the context of what happens in the show this season. The new season of Percy Jackson will adapt the second book in the series, The Sea Of Monsters, and is set to come out in December of this year.
