The god of war has arrived. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 5 introduced viewers to Adam Copeland’s Ares, a brash and pot-stirring Greek god bent on raising hell Tartarus within Percy, Annabeth and Grover’s quest.
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Many saw Copeland as a perfect fit for this character due to his decades inside the squared circle, as the wrestler formerly known as Edge possesses an unrelenting chaotic energy any time he steps between the ropes. That said, Hollywood is not a new avenue for the Rated-R Superstar, as Copeland already had dozens of filmography credits to his name before Percy Jackson. Most of those projects came during the 2010s, a time period where Copeland was retired from wrestling due to a series of neck injuries. After nine years away from the ring, Copeland was able to get cleared, and has been wrestling fairly consistently since January 2020. He now competes for All Elite Wrestling.
When he returned to wrestling, Copeland put his acting career on pause.
“More than anything, I’m at a stage in my life where it’s got to be fun or I don’t want to do it, but then it also has to fit into family life and it has to fit into the AEW schedule,” Copeland told ComicBook Nation’s Riptide Radio. “I can’t go to Istanbul for six months. I’m not even going to read for that one and waste everybody’s time.”
Auditions were still hitting Copeland’s inbox, but the 50-year-old found himself passing on most opportunities. That changed when Percy Jackson came knocking.
“When this audition came in, I found the fun in it. I found the comedic beats in it. I found that I really liked this guy even though he’s not a nice guy. I knew it would be fun to play,” Copeland said. “Because of those comedic beats, it wasn’t just a one-note character. I loved that there were also these other sides. The insecurity. The sarcasm. The competing with his sister. All of these different layers that go into it. That to me was what I found really compelling and exciting about it. When I got those sides, even my wife said, because she read with me, she goes, ‘You had a lot of fun with that one.’ Yeah, I did. I think I know that guy. That doesn’t always happen when you get auditions, and I think it speaks to the writing. The writing on this show is just really, really good.”
Copeland’s firsthand familiarity with Percy Jackson was limited, as he pointed out that he was “on the road all the time” when The Lightning Thief hit bookshelves in 2005. Fortunately for the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion, his daughters were able to communicate just how big of a deal this franchise is.
“They love the books. In watching the show with them up until this point, they loved the show. For me as a dad, again at this stage of my life, to see the enjoyment that they’re getting from watching this, and how into it they’re getting without me even appearing,” Copeland shared. “They just like it and they really relate to the characters. I feel like any good movie or show, you see a little bit of yourself in the characters and have that dream. ‘Oh man, I’d like to go through that Tunnel of Love and do that.’
“I love anything like that, especially, again, at this stage of my life. When I do anything at my girls’ school and the kids are running up and saying, ‘Oh my God, so Percy did this!’ I’m like, Yeah, I know!’ That’s awesome. I’m so proud, honestly, to just be a part of it. When we went to the premiere and the first two episodes played, to see the joy on my girls’ faces and to see how into it they were getting and then to see the product and how good it was, I’m so happy and proud to be a part of it. Still am.”
His daughters’ influence goes much further than just feeling pride with the finished product too. Copeland explained that he drew from experiences with his kids to power Ares’s emotions towards Athena, Zeus, and other characters he has had off-screen interactions with.
“When you’re portraying these emotions, they’re real. They’ve happened to you in life at some point or you’ve seen it in life,” Copeland explained. “So I look at my girls, right? They’re seven and 10, and they compete. That’s what I tap into for how Ares feels about Athena and why he goes on about the owl and you can tell he’s jealous. The god of war is jealous! Everyone’s been jealous at some point. Or again, I see the competition between my girls and go, ‘Right, that’s what this.’ I can take some of when they’re kvetching to each other and I’m like, ‘Girls! Quit it!’ That’s what this is.
“That’s why I’m amazed when I see some of the young characters in this show and how they’re able to emote. How they’re able to pull emotion out of you with so little life experience to this stage, and yet they’re in there,” Copeland continued. “Some of Walker Scobell’s scenes, man. Wow. Where’d you get that from? Because at this point you’re 13! That’s amazing to me. And in between takes, you’re going to school by the way.”
Beyond his personal connections to the source material, Copeland’s wrestling persona made this role all the more of a match made in heaven.
“The day that I filmed the audition, I wore one of my post-apocalyptic Edge vests. I threw in an Andre The Giant t-shirt,” Copeland recalled. “My head was all shaved at the sides, kind of had a bit of a mohawk. I just went for it. For that day I took it a little bit shorter and a little bit crazier looking.”
Copeland’s in-ring look was not the only aspect of his wrestling career that he tapped into for Percy Jackson. When he’s on the microphone inside a squared circle, Copeland has a very unique way of delivering his promos, and he brought that energy to his Ares monologues.
“There were definitely times where I was pulling from my wrestling energy for sure, especially as it gets ramped up,” Copeland said. “That’s what I try and do within my wrestling promos: make it a story, make it a ride, ramp it up, bring it down. Hopefully take the viewer on that ride too, and then also give Aryan something to play off of. He’s nervous. Just that push and pull is really fun. Definitely having to try to be larger than life within wrestling helps when you’re playing a god.”
A trope often used to describe a good wrestling promo is “having the crowd in the palm of your hand.” In one of Copeland’s most critically-acclaimed Percy Jackson scenes, his “crowd” is scene-partner Aryan Simhadri. Simhadri previously told that he felt “terrified” when Copeland slammed the diner table at the conclusion of their scene.
“Yes, and that’s what I was going for,” Copeland said when asked if he felt Simhadri’s genuine fear. “I wanted to surprise him. I wanted to shock him. The first take shocked everyone because food jumped and glasses fell. I wanted to get that reaction and it got to the point where Jet [Wilkinson], our director, she goes, ‘Okay, you got to scare him on this one.’ It was a blast. That character is written to steal scenes. I don’t know how else to put it. I knew that gift was being put in my lap. If I don’t, then it’s purely on me.”
Percy Jackson Episode 5 ends with Ares sending Percy and company off in a truck to the Lotus Casino, the next stop on their quest. He is set to return later in the season for a climactic battle with Percy.
While the on-screen future of Percy Jackson is uncertain, it is technically written. Ares pops up in the second, third, and fifth Percy Jackson books and is a prominent player in sequel series The Heroes of Olympus, which features the god of war as his Roman alter ego, Mars.
When asked if he’s prepared to be in this for the long haul, Copeland emphasized that he’s always a phone call away.
“With this franchise, with Rick [Riordan] being so heavily involved, I thought the fan base would be all in on this one. It’s his vision being now brought to the screen. I knew there was a good chance that this would be a success,” Copeland said. “Speaking back to the diner scene, that wasn’t in the books. So I know there’s the ability, if your character connects, who knows what else they could write in to add more layers or to fill out a story. Either way, I’m going to be there if they want me.”
Copeland can be seen in Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode 5, now streaming on Disney+.
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