Percy Jackson Begins Filming Scenes At An Iconic Lightning Thief Location

Production on Percy Jackson and the Olympians is approaching an iconic chapter. This first season of Disney+'s serialized adaptation of Rick Riordan's best-selling novels is focused on the events of The Lightning Thief, the inaugural Percy Jackson adventure. The show's first eight episodes is already confirmed to include iconic locations like Camp Half-Blood, recreate big battles like the one that goes down at the St. Louis Arch, and bring intimidating big bads like Ares to life for the first official time in live-action. As Percy Jackson winds down its back half of production, Riordan, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, revealed that another famous Lightning Thief location is being created for the series.

"Wait until you see the Lotus," Riordan teased in a recent blog post. "You will know this part of the adventure well if you've read the books, but you will also find lots of fun details, new scenes and Easter eggs that make the experience even better."

Riordan is referring to the Lotus Casino, a paradise for temptation in the Las Vegas strip. Coming in The Lightning Thief Chapter 16, the Lotus Casino is offered to a questing Percy, Annabeth, and Grover as a resourceful rest stop when in actually, it is a camouflaged prison. Created by the Lotus-eaters, this casino traps its guests by giving them unlimited tokens to use on their addictive slot machines. Time moves differently in the Lotus Casino as well, as a week can feel like no more than an hour.

This is especially crucial to the narratives of two Percy Jackson characters: Nico and Bianca di Angelo. While they are not properly introduced until the third book, The Titan's Curse, these siblings spend decades trapped in the Lotus Casino. When Riordan teases that "Easter eggs" are coming in the Lotus, he could be alluding to inklings of the di Angelos' existence being hidden amongst the casino.

The Lotus Casino was previously brought to life in live-action in 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief movie. While the film adaptation is largely panned by fans of the books, the Lotus Casino scene was considered universally-beloved moment.

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(Photo: 20th Century Fox)

Riordan also added that filming is still expected to extend through "mid-January," meaning that the series will wrap with roughly eight months of production. That said, Riordan confirmed that they are in the home stretch now.

"We are now planning the end of the season — the episodes that will bring home the action described in The Lightning Thief. Everything is going well. We are on schedule. But this is a huge, complicated project and it takes a long time! When it is finished, though, I'm confident you will love it."

That last tease is a big one, as fans of The Lightning Thief know that the final chapters include trips to both the Underworld and Mount Olympus, as well as a heated clash between Percy and Ares.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is expected to arrive on Disney+ in 2024.

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