Today, day 2 of the 2022 D23 Expo, Percy Jackson fans got two special surprises. In addition to Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri making their first official group appearance, the first official trailer for Percy Jackson and the Olympians was released!
While the trailer is less than a minute long, fans got some breathtaking new content (did anyone else shiver when they heard “Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood”?). As such, we’re breaking down what we noticed in the first official trailer, which can be viewed below.
What we Noticed
- Capture the Flag — It seems as if we’re getting a glimpse at what’s bound to be an exciting depiction of the time-honored camp tradition that is capture the flag. With demigods abounding in the forest geared up in their best armor — who doesn’t love a good old Greek Corinthian plume — serious as ever (and is that Clarisse La Rue we see in the front?), this shot already promises an epic sequence for an equally epic book passage.
- Cabins — The scenery displayed in this short trailer is nothing short of absolutely breathtaking, and that beauty definitely extends to the architecture. Multiple cabins are showcased, most notably the no longer empty Cabin 3 (it’s even blue!!!), but also Apollo’s cabin (signaled by the Lyre) and Athena’s cabin (Cabin 6). Annabeth even appears to be standing outside of the Athena cabin by the tree!
- Ancient Greek — The signs for different places on camp contained some very carefully placed Greek letters in place of English letters (for example, a capitalized sigma (∑) in the place of an E in the stables sign). Riordan himself has confirmed that this is an on-screen representation of how the demigods’ brains are hardwired for ancient Greek!
Camp Staples
- Camp Half-Blood T-shirts — The orange t-shirts fans love so much are all over the place in this trailer. With a slightly different design than fans have traditionally taken on in their merch, we’re excited to see our favorite demigods honoring them.
- Camp necklace — We also got a brief glimpse of Percy’s camp necklace (the leather cord bare for now). If this show is as immense of a success as I believe it will be, hopefully we’ll get to see that cord fill up with beads season by season.
- Stables — While Blackjack doesn’t canonically appear until The Sea of Monsters, Riordan has stated multiple times that there will be Easter eggs teasing future events. The stables (teased by the sign at the beginning) may just be one of these things. Will some other pegasi make an appearance early on? We’ll have to wait and see.
Speculation
- Familiar characters? — While filming for the show has been underway for quite some time, many casting announcements have yet to be revealed. However, in the shot depicting Percy walking with Apollo’s cabin in the background, it seems highly plausible that we’re seeing some characters that make appearances later on in the series — though what I’ll say next is of course pure speculation. Some possible groupings we’re seeing are Silena Beauregard and Charles Beckendorf to the left of the cabin and the Stoll twins to the right of the cabin. It will definitely be interesting to see what other campers we meet early on in the narrative.
All in all, this first trailer was an amazing way to kick off promotion for the show. Riordan and the lead trio have proven how passionate they are about this project, and seeing the initial fruits of the entire cast and crew’s labor, it’s easy to see how sincere those sentiments are. We can’t wait to see what else Percy Jackson and the Olympians has in store as filming continues. I, for one, truly believe that this is going to be the adaptation that fans deserve.
As always, stay tuned for more updates. Need some content to tide you over until the show’s release? In addition to giving those books a reread, make sure to check out all of our other content related to the show and Rick Riordan at their respective links, including things we’d like to see in the show and a list of Riordan’s upcoming projects!
