On December 20, Disney+ will debut its television adaptation ofPercy Jackson and the Olympians, based on the belovedRick Riordanfantasy series of the same name. The Greek mythology-influenced series is already promising to be the adaptation fans have long been waiting for. Witha budget akin to Disney+‘sThe Mandalorian, it’s no surprise that the creative team put their all into making the large-scale series, especially with many of the design elements — and production designerDan Hennahand costume designerTish Monaghancan’t wait for viewers to see what they cooked up.
During roundtable interviews at New York Comic Con 2023, Hennah and Monaghan toldThe Geeky Waffle’sCandace Kawwhich sets and costumes were their favorite, and why they’re excited for viewers to see them on screen. Hennah shared that Hades’ world stands out for him. He notes howHades, played byJay Duplassin the show, is “the hardest working god. He spends all day looking after all those people who misbehave.” So, Hades needed a world that matched his character and one that was defined and could stand on its own.
“We decided to go with a very monotone, very white on gray, on gray, on black, on white world, and also his world is upside down. His palace is his form of Mount Olympus upside down. Also, just the concept of it being the underworld, so what’s up above? It’s not the sky up above; there’s actually mountains, and all that business is up there, and his world is down here. Then we have a layer people walk on, so gravity is being defied. So, lots of opportunities to do some really surreal stuff.”
‘Percy Jackson’s Medusa Will Be Unique
Beyond production design, the costumes are just as important to creating a lush world and informing the many various characters that will appear throughoutPercy Jackson. One character Monaghan is especially looking forward to unveiling is Medusa, played byJessica Parker Kennedy. While viewers already sawa teaser image of Kennedy as the character, it gives little away as far as what to expect with this rendition of the iconic Gorgon. Monaghan teased thatPercy Jackson’s Medusa costume is “unlike any other Medusa costume, with a lot of influence from Jon Steinberg [creator, showrunner, executive producer] and Dan Shotz [executive producer] because they had averyspecific look that they were going for, and I added to that look.” Additionally, Monaghan pulled someclassic Grecian inspiration, but ultimately, “it will be a surprise.”
As for the gods of Olympus themselves, it was key for Monaghan to stay close to Riordan’s books, which feature very specific descriptions of their garb, as she told Collider’sArezou Amin:
“When I started working on the show, I asked our producers, “What road should I travel down for these characters? Do you want to see them looking like Greek gods of antiquity or…?” And they said to me, “Follow the book.” So that was what I always went to for my first source of inspiration. And in the book, the gods, Zeus and Poseidon, are described in a very specific way – pinstriped suit, and then Poseidon is looking almost like a beach bum. We took a little bit of license with his shirt. We just gave him a casual shirt to put him in shorts, but we did have him in sandals just to kind of, you know, play with the look that was described. With the character of Ares, which will be coming up, I think, in the fourth or fifth episode, again, I went right to the book, and he’s described on a motorcycle wearing a long black leather coat. So these are the kind of images that we stuck with, and it’s what the producers wanted and what Rick Riordan wanted.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympiansdebuts with its first two episodes December 20 on Disney+. Subsequent episodes will release weekly on Wednesdays.
