Fairview teenager Walker Scobel, who most recently starred alongside Ryan Reynolds in the Netflix film "The Adam Project," has been cast as Percy Jackson in Disney+'s upcoming series "Percy Jackson and the Olympians."
Rick Riordan, author of the best-selling novel "Percy Jackson," announced Monday that Scobel was on board as the show's main character.
"Walker Scobel is an incredibly talented young man who blew us away with his audition tape for the role of Percy," Riordan wrote on his website. "It was clear to me and the rest of the team that Walker had the right mix of comic timing, sweetness, rebelliousness, snark and heroism to embody our hero, Percy Jackson."
According to the statement, Scobel auditioned months before "The Adam Project" came out, and the film confirmed what Riordan and his team knew about the 13-year-old's talent.
Since receiving the news that he landed the part of Jackson, Scobel has read several chemistry with the candidates for the other two leads, Annabeth and Grover, who Riordan said would soon be chosen.
“We look forward to working with Scobels in Vancouver (British Columbia) this summer and building on the dedicated, supportive, enthusiastic community that is rapidly building around this project,” Riordan wrote.
The series will tell the story of Jackson, a 12-year-old modern god who is coming to terms with his superpowers when Zeus is accused of stealing his legendary lightning bolt.
The "Percy Jackson" book series includes "The Lightning Thief," "The Sea of Monsters," "The Titan's Curse," "The Battle of the Labyrinths" and "The Last Olympian." Riordan has also published the companion books "The Demigod Files" and "The Demigod Diaries".
"The Lightning Thief" and "The Sea of Monsters" were both previously adapted into feature films. Logan Lerman starred as Jackson.
According to a recent post by Riordan, the Percy Jackson Disney+ series will be eight episodes long. At this time, there is no scheduled release date.