Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Insight on Rick Riordan’s Cameo (Exclusive)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians borrowed a page from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s playbook in its series premiere. After the titular demigod (Walker Scobell) seemingly pushes class bully Nancy Bobofit (Olivia Morton) into a fountain, he is brought before Yancy Academy’s headmaster. As the headmaster questions him, two teachers also watch on. To the right is Mr. Brunner (Glynn Turman), Percy’s eventual guide into the mythological world. Sitting opposite Brunner is an unnamed teacher played by Rick Riordan, the author of the Percy Jackson books and the creator of the entire franchise. While Riordan’s cameo was quite literally shrouded in the shadows, this moment served as Percy Jackson‘s “Stan Lee” moment and potentially opens the door for more secret Riordan appearances in future seasons.

“His enthusiasm was very catching,” Turman told ComicBook.com regarding Riordan’s presence on set that day. “He was on the set most of the time. You could see his mind clicking in terms of what’s next. How is this going to transfer? What is this going to link? He was really into it, like, ‘What’s happening next season?’ He’s really on top of it and we had a wonderful time.”

That enthusiasm mostly came behind the camera, because as showrunners Dan Shotz and Jonathan E. Steinberg recall, Riordan more than got his acting fix with his brief teaching cameo.

“He had to sit there all day,” Shotz recalled. “I think he said, ‘This was a lot of fun, but I’m good.’”

“I wrote him a six-page monologue,” Steinberg joked. “He chose that scene instead.”

As evident by the social media response, many fans missed Riordan’s cameo upon their initial watches. Some of that can be attributed to the lighting, but director James Bobin pointed to another element.

“Of course he also was a teacher,” Bobin added, referring to Riordan’s decade-plus of teaching English before becoming a full-time author. “He was a natural. He really was. When he sits in that room with the headmaster and Mr. Brunner, it feels like it’s three teachers looking at you.”

While a Riordan cameo was somewhat anticipated by fans going into Season 1, it coming within the first 15 minutes of the series premiere took some by surprise.

“He’s so woven into the fabric of this fan community, this story, just the world. They’re inseperable. It felt right to make sure that if you’re watching this, we got that too, and that his stamp is on this from the very beginning and all the way throughout,” Steinberg said.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians debuts new episodes every Tuesday at 9 PM ET on Disney+. Tune into ComicBook Nation presents Riptide Radio – A Percy Jackson Aftershow immediately after for an in-depth discussion and exclusive interview!