Percy Jackson: Major Character Gets Book-Accurate Makeover

One of Disney+’s first big budget endeavors outside of Star Wars and Marvel comes in the form of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The house of mouse has been collaborating with Rick Riordan for over three years now to bring a live-action serialized adaptation of his best-selling Greek mythology-based novels to life. Production on Percy Jackson finally kicked off in June 2022, two years after Rick and wife Becky Riordan announced that the project was in development. Disney has spared no expense with the show either, as a custom Industrial Light & Magic StageCraft was constructed specifically for Percy Jackson production.

Beyond the fantastical sets, Percy Jackson has a number of characters that require varying levels of CGI. Monsters like the Minotaur and Echidna will likely be brought to life via visual effects, while prominent figures like Glynn Turman’s Chiron and Aryan Simhadri’s Grover Underwood will have half of their bodies transformed into animals. Chiron is a centaur, meaning his lower half is a horse, and Grover is a satyr, a half-man, half-goat.

Speaking of the latter, the Riordans recently revealed that they have both seen photographs of Simhadri in his full satyr-leg glory.

“The best part of my day today was seeing a photo of Aryan Simhadri as Grover with satyr legs,” Becky wrote on Twitter. “The worst part of my day is not being able to share the photo with you!”

“I got to see a picture of Grover Underwood in full goat hooves yesterday, which was amazing,” Rick shared on Instagram.

Based on the verbiage, Grover’s satyr legs are likely being brought to life via motion capture. Viewing them via a photograph indicates that they needed to go through some post-production polishing rather than be seen first-hand.

Grover’s satyr legs showing up this late in production also hints that they won’t be seen until the later episodes. In The Lightning Thief book, Grover is usually seen covering his mythical half with pants and The Mist, a supernatural force that shields mortals from seeing demigods and monsters in their true form. Grover regularly trots around Camp Half-Blood in his full satyr form, so this photograph could also be a still image from one of the first season’s earlier episodes.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians wraps production this month and is expected to premiere on Disney+ in 2024.