‘Percy Jackson’ Stars Reveal the Surprising Truth Behind Season 2: “There Are No Villains”

Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians deepens the emotional landscape of its supporting cast, giving Grover (Aryan Simhadri), Luke (Charlie Bushnell), and Clarisse (Dior Goodjohn) some of their most layered material yet. From Clarisse’s guarded vulnerability to Grover’s evolving connection to Pan to Luke’s tragic unraveling, the season pushes each character into more complicated, morally rich territory. It’s a shift that allows the actors to explore internal conflicts that aren’t always visible on the pages of Rick Riordan’s The Sea of Monsters, but come to life powerfully on screen.

To break down that evolution ahead of the series’ two-episode December 10 premiere, Collider’s Hannah Hunt sat down with the cast to talk about the emotional challenges of Season 2, the morally gray decisions that shape their characters, and how they approached playing heroes, antagonists, and everything in between.

Clarisse’s Vulnerability and Dior’s Approach to What She Hides

“It really is just a practice of studying human behavior.”

Image via Disney+

COLLIDER: Dior, I have to start with you. I am stunned by you this season. I remembered you talked to us at San Diego Comic-Con, and you said that Clarisse kind of goes on this path of people are going to love to hate her this season. So I went in with that mindset, and you are so right. She is just so incredible to watch this season, and I’m loving what you’re doing with her. So we get more vulnerability from her this season beneath that intensity. How did you navigate showing what she’s hiding versus what actively slips through?

DIOR GOODJOHN: So, you know, it really is just a practice of studying just human behavior. Truly, it’s like just go out, and going out to coffee shops and just watching people and how their emotions just flash. Like it’s not spelled out for you. It’s quite literally just a flash of understanding. And also pulling from lived experience is a really big thing for me. So I’m sure you’ve had moments where, you know, you’re being halfway honest with someone where you can’t not tell the truth. There’s something in you yearning to just be open with someone, but you can’t say the whole thing.

And so thinking back to those times in my life where like, “I want to be open with you, but I can’t like you’ll never understand what’s actually happening. So I can’t say everything.” Thinking about what that felt like in my physical body as opposed to my brain and bringing that in and applying it to what I’m actually going through in the season. If we’re looking for a really straightforward way of how I actually did it. I can go into the whole metaphorical yada yada, but that’s the very straightforward way of how I would say that.

Emotional Arcs, Surprising Depth, and What Each Actor Explored This Season

“I think there’s definitely still a part of him that’s holding on to this past life.”

I think that’s a great response. One for the three of you. You all have deeper emotional layers this season. What part of your arc felt the most surprising or meaningful to dive into?

ARYAN SIMHADRI: I think for Grover, I think one of the things, a couple of things that I really wanted to dive into was A, his how his relationship with Percy evolves given the new empathy link and the time away from him. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. B, I think what his relationship with Pan is now that he’s on his quest searching for him now that he has found the golden fleece. Now that he has received new information about Pan, I think how his relationship with this very literal and also very metaphorical thing changes for him is interesting this season.

CHARLIE BUSHNELL: I think for Luke, you know, still having that internal struggle there with him, you know, he’s going full steam ahead with bringing back Kronos and the Golden Age and all that, but I think there’s definitely still a part of him that’s holding on to this past life, particularly with Annabeth and we can see that a bit, you know, in episode three and then also in some later episodes, we touch on that a bit as well. And so yeah, still just having that internal struggle and you know, finding a good balance between that because I feel like I feel like in the book, you know, it’s not there quite as much, at least in Sea of Monsters, I feel like.

GOODJOHN: There are still hints of it. You still see hints. You see an invisible string, but not really.

BUSHNELL: Yeah. And so that was really fun, but also kind of challenging to work on to play with.

GOODJOHN: I think for Clarisse, I would say understanding and being okay with the idea of fully letting go of like perception, if that makes any sense at all, because I think the really beautiful thing about being an actor is the escapism aspect of it all, where you get to live in completely different worlds and have completely different memories other than your own and live a totally different life. Whereas what Clarisse goes through is such a very, very kind of canon teenage girl thing that I think happens. You know what I’m saying? And experiencing that in my own life and to experience that at the same time that we were shooting Season 2 and kind of being like, “Okay, I have this, it’s an apple, okay, I have this, okay, it’s not an orange, it’s also an apple.” So I’m going to take this and put it on screen and literally not be myself, but allow my real lived experience that I’m living right now to come through on camera. No, even though I haven’t figured it out yet and not be afraid of doing that to give the best performance. That was the scariest part, the most challenging part.

Luke’s Tragedy and Moral Complexity in ‘Percy Jackson’ Season 2

“I think Thalia was the first person that he met in his life that actually understood him and saw him for who he was.”

Image via Disney+

Charlie, Luke’s arc is definitely one of the most tragic in the franchise. I’m pretty sure that’s safe to say. What’s the hardest part for you of portraying that internal unraveling that he’s going through?

BUSHNELL: I mean, like I was just talking about still having that internal struggle, but also, yeah, it’s, I think really just diving deep into what motivates Luke and understanding where he’s coming from, you got to put yourself in his shoes. Even from the time he was born, he was a baby and then his mom was driven mad when she tried to become the Oracle and then soon after that, Hermes took off never to be seen again really. And so from the time he was literally a baby, he was kind of left on his own to look after himself and then had and then went on the run and had to be on the streets, and then he meets Thalia and then Thalia is taken from him. That one person that he kind of… I think Thalia was the first person that he met in his life that actually understood him and saw him for who he was. And she was taken from him and then his father sends him on a quest and it goes wrong and it was already done by Hercules and there’s just so many things that have led to this moment and to Luke going down this path. And, you know, you got, you got a feel for the guy like he’s been through it.

GOODJOHN: It’s not without reason that he is the way he is.

BUSHNELL: It’s not without reason. He makes some really great points, and I myself am a Luke apologist, if you will, a Luke understander, and Grover and Aryan.

GOODJOHN: A Luke sympathizer.

This is a common theme today. I will say that.

GOODJOHN: Luke sympathizers?

BUSHNELL: Luke sympathizers?

Yeah, Rick was also a bit of a Luke sympathizer when I spoke with him this morning.

SIMHADRI: gasps

BUSHNELL: Whoa!

SIMHADRI: Maybe Luke is a true hero.

Yeah, we were talking about how both Dior and Charlie, your characters are both very morally gray this season. And he said some things along the lines of you kind of have to understand where he’s coming from a little bit the more he talks.”

BUSHNELL: Totally.

I think he does make some points.

BUSHNELL: I think Percy, even this is something me and Walker have talked about like, I think Luke and Percy are like, they’re two sides of the same coin, you know, I think the only difference is Percy had his mom growing up. But I think if he hadn’t, I think there’s a good chance person.

Related

Will ‘Percy Jackson’ Season 3 Actually Happen? Series Showrunner Weighs In

Season 2 premieres soon.

Playing Moral Grayness Without Becoming “Villains”

“You can’t judge your character.”

Image via Disney+

Very quickly, one last question. How do you avoid playing your two characters, Dior and Charlie, as morally gray and not straightforward villains, even when their choices are hurting other people?

GOODJOHN: Here we go. We say this all the time. There’s no real villains. There’s no real villains. In order to be a good villain, you have to genuinely believe that what you’re doing is just and right and fair.

SIMHADRI: You can’t judge your character.

GOODJOHN: You cannot judge your character. Yeah. Because if you go ahead and you hurt somebody, you’re not knowing that well, some people do, but you’re not knowing that you’re going to hurt them. You’re just like, well, this is what happened to me and I’m just in the way that I’m feeling and what I’m doing.

BUSHNELL: Yeah. But also just shout out to the writers. I mean, they’ve given us so much. And what’s so great about the show is we get to really expand on every character because you know, the books are all just Percy’s POV and so we’re getting his interpretation of all these characters. But the show, yeah, like we really get to expand and go deeper into every character and so and just the reasons why they are the way they are.

GOODJOHN: To not play it morally gray. It’s like, yeah, you just have to really believe that what you’re doing is the right thing. Because you don’t see it until it’s explained to you.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2 are available to stream on Disney+.

Release Date

December 19, 2023

Network

Disney+

Showrunner

Jonathan E. Steinberg, Dan Shotz

Writers

Joe Tracz, Andrew Miller

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  Walker Scobell

  Percy Jackson

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  Leah Sava Jeffries

  Annabeth Chase