Percy Jackson Author Confirms Iconic Monster for Disney+ Series
An iconic monster is coming to Disney+'s Percy Jackson and the Olympians. As confirmed by author Rick Riordan on his personal blog, the Minotaur will be a featured player in Season 1. "And now, it's back to TV land. I'm off for another exciting day of production," Riordan wrote following a day off from Percy Jackson filming. "I think we may be meeting the Minotaur today." This comes just one week after the first set photos from Percy Jackson's on-location shoot in Aldergrove, Vancouver surfaced. Those pictures revealed the presence of a Hydra dummy, likely used for training by Camp Half-Blood campers.
Fans of the Percy Jackson books will recall the Minotaur's limited yet catalytic role in the series' first installment. After the titular character narrowly escapes his pre-algebra teacher (who was secretly one of the three Furies), Percy is pursued by the Minotaur. The son of Poseidon is able to make it to the other side of Camp Half-Blood's magical monster-blocking borders safely, but not before the Minotaur captures his mother. Before the half-man, half-bull can kill her, Sally Jackson evaporates into golden light and is taken hostage in the underworld by Hades. It's this kidnapping, along with the Quest for the Master Bolt, that shift The Lightning Thief narrative into full gear. The mythical beast is absent for the next three books, but returns for a rematch in the culminating Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian.
The live-action reboot of Riordan's bestselling novels is currently in its second month of production, where it has shot scenes both on location as well as on a virtual soundstage. The latter is specifically Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft LED stage, the same technology used to bring landscapes in The Mandalorian and The Batman to life. Even with as strong of a foundation as those aforementioned projects, this new Volume is set to push the limits even further.
"Our new Volume stage is an even more cutting-edge version of that wraparound virtual environment, making it one of the most advanced production stages in the world," Riordan said. "We are using it for things that have never been attempted before, creating settings so realistic that if we do it right, you should never be able to guess which scenes were done on location and which were done on the stage."
Percy Jackson is expected to be in production until next January and is currently without a release date.