Hey everyone, welcome to a bite of We had a very special episode today We got we're talking about interviews.

We're talking about Percy Jackson season 2 spoiler free.

Putting that out there, we have a non spoiler 1 coming when the premiere actually drops.

But we couldn't wait to get our thoughts out there.

Very excited for this.

Are you ready for another season of Percy Jackson?

I'm so ready.

I've never been more ready for something in my life.

I'm Noah and that's Derek.

We're here to officially kick off Percy Jackson's season 2 season.

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So let's get into it.

Heck yeah.

So let us officially take a bite of what we're calling before you watch Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2.

And most importantly, OK, so I've said this before, Noah has an encyclopedic memory.

He can store files away in his brain forever.

Whereas I, on the other hand, no pressure watch a beautiful thing, really enjoy it.

And then the details fly out of my head.

So we were lucky enough to get the first few episodes of season 2.

And so you all aren't as confused as I was.

I thought it would be great to remind you of a couple of things of where we left off in season 1 leading off into season 2.

And the first thing I want to start off with is that our trio have not seen each other for almost a year.

Summer camp Summer.

Camp.

So it's summer camp, right?

Just like real life summer camp.

They meet during the summer months and then they go back to their regular lives.

So the things to know is that Percy and Sally are on their own.

Sally has officially dumped Gabe, which is a wonderful thing, and they're living together, doing their own thing.

He's gone back to school.

Annabeth, on the other hand, has finally, you know, had a year to be a real teenager, which I think is really exciting.

So she's going to go see things never seen, she's gonna go to school, she's gonna ride roller coasters and experience life as a kid.

And then kind of one of the more cool things that's happened is that Grover has his Searchers license, yes.

To find pan.

Yes.

So that is really cool.

So he is.

Off I mean really yeah, we we left the first season with them in a good in a good place, you know, but as like a econd story season 2 comes.

We know that that's setting U to be like MMM.

Is this going to cause issues later on?

O Time has passed, they haven't seen each other for a while.

O What does that mean for them going into Season 2?

Next, I want to remind you that there is a war at play.

So yes, they left off quite nicely, but they went to their normal lives realizing that Luke is actually sort of on the other side of things.

He was a bit of a double agent.

That was the biggest twist at the very end of season 1, Luke betrayed.

Yeah, Luke, who we thought was our bestie, was actually our frenemy, so remember that.

Another thing I want you to remember is that Talia is a tree.

Is that where we're ending that?

Pretty much I mean, there's one more that the gods are bad parents because that pretty much plays throughout the entire series.

But Talia is a tree.

Now I, I want to say this because I remember when I was reading the books and I read the lightning thief and I thought, wow, that's a really sad story.

Like really cool that Talia, like, you know, sacrificed herself and and Zeus made her a tree.

So she didn't go to Hades and was surprised that in the Sea of Monsters, actually it has a lot to do with what's happening going forward.

So remember.

Talia is a tree.

Talia is a tree.

Yeah.

Is it?

I feel like in the show didn't wasn't there a revelation that it was like Thalia, right?

Am I wrong?

Did they say Thalia?

But I noticed in the press interviews, which we'll get to a little later in this episode, that they all call her Talia.

OK, well whatever.

Teach their own.

You can say however you want.

How do you pronounce Yeah?

Talia All right, so we're going to get into our I mean, that's really it, right?

I mean, there's a lot of things that I think we just go back and listen to our episodes if you want to, if you want to hear our full thoughts on every episode.

And we also covered the book.

So we were really deep into like the Percy Jackson lore of everything.

So we did all of that.

But I do like this little recap of like, you know, Luke betrayed.

There's demigods tree, that's all we need to know.

Y'all tree.

There's a lot of nuance and stuff obviously, but like, I think that's good, right?

It's like Luke betrayed and that's where we left.

And this, this season and from what we know of the second book is all about who can you trust everything.

We're going to get into our spoiler free review thoughts of the 1st 2 episodes of the premiere and then we'll talk about the interviews that we had with the casting creators and Rick Riordan.

What did you think going into these two episodes after the first season?

So one of the things that I was reflecting on is that I think a lot of times when it comes to the second of something, right, whether it's an artist's second album, ATV Show's second season, there's always this bit of pressure and we want it to live up to what the first season was.

Sometimes they deliver and sometimes they fail.

But in watching these two episodes, I really feel like Season 2 is delivering what we got in Season 1 and also then some.

And, and I think that's what I'm taking away from it.

I think that there is a lot more exploration of who these characters are, who they were, who they're becoming, and the work that has gone into that as the actors.

And I think you could really see that playing out on screen.

Yeah, I think, you know, it's, it's, we all have eyes, right?

And our cast has grown up a little bit, which is totally fine.

And I think it has that effect on the story as well.

The books, the the show and the cast.

It's all the older you get, the more intense things to get.

And I will say, even just in these first two episodes, while it still feels like Percy Jackson, we still have that.

Not so much the mix between like the real world and the mythical.

It's a little more leaning than mythical side I feel like just in these first two episodes.

But it seems older and not in a bad way.

It's just like, OK, a year has passed and they've had some time to either work through things or not work through things and it just goes with growing with them.

And I really appreciated that.

I will also say that like one of the things that we kind of touched on in the first season was it was kind of dark, not like thematically, more like visually it was hard to see some things.

And I think the way it looks in this one is already just kind of a little more polished.

Absolutely, and I think that Polish comes through with the visual effects, with the practical effects, the sets as well.

I feel like everything along with the cast has grown up right here, right And and you know something else about season 2 is that season 1?

You know, the first of anything you have to do a lot of groundwork, right?

We're introducing people, we're telling their stories, they're figuring out who they are.

So now we're firmly in a lot of these characters in who they are.

They know their lineage, they know about the world.

So where does it take us from there?

Well, that allows us to dive.

Deeper into things, I mean, you're not to like jump ahead to like the interviews and stuff, but even just in these first two episodes, you can tell that the cast, Rick, the producers, everybody was like, because this isn't like the books.

And we're not stuck in the POV of Percy because that's how all the books are, just what Percy sees.

It really gives us the opportunity to explore these characters in a more nuanced, layered, complicated way that we didn't get before.

Be that via through flashbacks, which we know is going to happen in the season.

That's not a spoiler.

We know it's going to happen.

But even just like in these first two episodes, just seeing how some of these characters interact when Percy isn't on the screen, seeing Clarice, you know, which I think it's a big stand out even just in these two episodes and going into this story, I I like that a lot.

You can really tell that it's like, cool, we're going to get more of the thing that we really appreciated from the first season.

Absolutely.

And I, I, and another thing I appreciate about this that I think carried over from Season 1 is the ability to match the sort of serious nature of things, but also the joviality of things, right?

These are still young characters.

They're still figuring things out and there are still some funny things that can happen.

And I appreciate that they, they do a really good job of balancing the light, the dark, the action, and the quieter things as well.

So I just thought that these first two episodes were really, really strong.

I will say, like y'all, chariot race, fantastic.

Freaking fantastic, freaking fantastic.

The the cannibals cannonball fight, all of that fantastic.

I think these like things that we all remember from reading the books.

If you're a fan of it, they don't.

I mean, they just do it with such care.

Yes, it's it's changed a little bit, but like I, I think I thought in my head like I don't know when they're doing the chariot races, like it needed to be this big spectacle, like they're in the Colosseum type thing.

But the way they did it was so much more planned in a way of like, you can really be in the chariot with them, and I liked that.

And also, how do you ground a chariot race in a summer camp setting, right?

And I think that's true.

They did that though, right?

Is that this is a summer camp out on the East End of Long Island.

How do we have a chariot race there?

And and they did it.

And I think that that's also kind of what we were talking about before.

Is that like the sets, even in these first two episodes, the details that are put in into these Chariots, it's into the armor, into the weaponry.

It's just the creativity was really flourishing here and I'm really excited to see what's coming in the next, what, 6 episodes of the season?

Because we haven't even like at the end of episode 2.

We're just setting sail.

The Quest.

The quest, right?

This is the Sea of Monsters, so we've just put our toes in the sea.

So I can't wait to see.

Yeah, we have screeners for more of the episodes, but we're trying to have journalistic integrity and not we're going with you guys as well.

We don't like to skip ahead.

Also, it's fun.

I don't wanna waste all of it and be like everybody is behind us.

I don't want to do that.

But I will say, like even in these first two episodes, there's a lot of new characters and Percy Jackson, even in the first season, you get the sense that they're not afraid to like hire a big star for like one day of work, you know?

But like in this one, we have some characters, the Gray sisters, amazing.

Tantalus, I think is going to be like a good foil slash partner to Dionysus.

But Tyson, we're going to talk more in like our non spoiler like folder review.

But Tyson, I really think is the stand out for me in these two episodes.

I agree, I agree and I think you know the interesting thing that Rick does so Rick as I I know my first name mate basis.

You didn't need him that is well from afar.

I saw him live.

I think what he does so well in this series is he writes characters that are both a ally and an enemy at the same time, and he manages to find that duality really well, right?

It's like Tantalus as a character.

He is there to kind of, you know, poke our main characters, but he's still part of this realm, you know?

And also part of the bigger story, there's like more like political reasons on why he's there, right?

Because Chiron is no longer there.

So somebody needed to take the place.

And it's interesting that it's him.

I'm going to be really excited to see how they finish that story, or at least continue why he's there and what happens to him.

But going into Tyson, I agree.

I just think Dan Deemer, Daniel Deemer just does such an incredible.

Job like nickname basis is with these people.

Yo, we hang out.

So you know what?

Let's let's get into the the press.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

So that's like generally our thoughts.

But before we get into that, I do want to ask like is there anything in particular because again, we haven't seen past these two seasons of what we've seen so far, is there anything in particular that you remember from the story or just what we've seen that you're kind of looking forward to?

Or do you have any predictions?

Again, as I said at the top of this episode, I read something, I enjoy it, and it happens to go out of my head.

Not to get too deep into the folklore of Derek and Noah, but our first date was in the city in Central Park, and we were talking about books that we had both read.

And Noah could like name the page number and exact quotes.

And I was like, yeah, I really liked that book.

So I go on a motion, but I I I remember.

This is also, like, way too generous.

That is, it's kind of true, but not that true.

It's just saying definitely true, but I think that I'm looking forward to them coming together again.

I was like.

What are we doing?

So meaning, like, you know, we have Annabeth, Percy and Tyson and we have Grover doing his own thing.

It always excites me when the trio are together again, so I'm looking forward to their stories finally coming together.

Yeah.

This is a big season where they're kind of apart and I, I'm, I'm looking forward to that too.

I think like the thing that I'm looking forward to the most is that we not only have three main characters, we have 6 main characters this season, which is really exciting.

We have Tyson, Clarice, Annabeth, Grover, Percy and Luke.

And so to get all of those POV's and a plot and B plot and all of that, I think it's going to be really exciting.

And there's also Charlie Rodriguez.

Chris, Chris, sorry.

How dare I was like Charlie Bushnell, See.

He knows, he knows, but he's also thrown in there as well.

I wouldn't.

Call him my main character.

I'm just saying he's there.

He's there.

Yeah, I'm very excited there's a moment, okay, I'm not gonna spoil that.

There's a boiling with Chris.

It's just amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, so yes, let's get into press and really, you know, we might insert a video here and here and there with this, but we really wanted to just kind of talk about these interviews that we had with the cast and Rick, and it was just really cool to see that how one they're just really excited for again and to be here, but also how much they got to explore these characters much more than in the first season.

Kind of like what you said of just laying the groundwork.

That's a lot of work to do, and now they're able to actually live in this world.

That's very exciting to see.

And I and I think hearing them talk about the care that they took in crafting these characters in the second season, you know, for some of the actors, for Daniel, this was his first time at obviously being there.

And so some of the things that he thought about that he shared, I was, you know, you wouldn't think about necessarily about how he is an actor that obviously has two eyes, but is portraying a character that only has 1.

And so he thought a lot about the movement of the character and the facial expressions that he was making.

Because what I'm doing now as a person that has two eyes, what would that actually read as a character with one eye?

Building out the character, a lot of the kind of emotional aspects of the character, we were trying to like find a line of building out so that it would work with an eye.

And so I think we, we had conversations around it was like, but it was like, how do I push the energy so that when kind of it all comes together on screen, you're able to kind of see that through just the physicality with expression, but also not push it too far and then make it kind of weird for us when we're working together with the actual day-to-day work where I do have two eyes.

But I thought that they did a great job with trying to with retaining all that emotional aspect as well.

Yeah.

You know, so these are the things that they were really taking care with and thinking of.

And I think he also talked about bringing that lovability and that vulnerability that Tyson has to the screen.

And I think seeing in these first two episodes, we could really see that that work came through.

Yeah.

And they also had a lot of, you know, he had mentioned somebody had asked Daniel about what was the chemistry like, or it was either Daniel or Walker, what was the chemistry like?

And you know, Daniel had said, you know, this, it was just immediate, like you have that chemistry or you don't.

You can't really necessarily manufacture that.

So in the chemistry read that they had it was just natural for them.

And because they're not only playing like new Co stars, they have to also play brothers as well.

So like even in the beginning, not knowing their brothers but acting like brothers, It's really.

Obvious that it was that we both love the books, love the project and we're really passionate about kind of bringing it together in in as like special way as we could.

And so at least for me, that was something that really kind of like felt like this was could be another home for me.

It wasn't something I've been having having to fight against my Co workers try and do what I want to do.

And so that made it really, really cool really, really quickly.

Yeah, like, like you said, I mean, it's not, it's kind of just there or it isn't, you know, And I feel like it was just there right away and, and we didn't have to work too hard to find it on screen, you know?

So that's really a fun dynamic to see and to see that it was just immediate.

I mean, I think when it was first announced and you saw that picture of Daniel next to Walker on those stairs, it was you could tell that there was some type of like camaraderie between them.

It's like what sometimes when you see a casting and there's like a little bit of a question mark in your mind, but when I saw the casting, it just seemed to make sense and it seemed to fit.

So I was really excited to see Daniel talk about his work.

And another person that really kind of brought their own personal story to the work was Dior Goodjohn as Clarice.

And this came from a question that you had.

Asked I was.

I was so happy that I got to ask Dior this question because I even just in the 1st 2 episodes and just knowing what the story is going to be.

I was really curious how somebody goes about playing a character like Clarice that can be a bully or an antagonist or main character, but also when they have their moment and when a story heavily involves them.

How do they portray both sides of that but also vulnerability?

That's a lovely question.

I love that that's being clocked.

First of all, I think the biggest challenge in that was having to be very honest with myself and where I was at in my life and realizing that I am going through the same experience that Clarice is going through in the story and not being afraid to put that on display and put that on camera.

I feel like a really fun part and big part for me about being an actor is the fact that you get to shed yourself completely and escape into a completely different world, be an entirely different person.

But when it came to Clarice's story this year, it was hitting very close to home in a lot of aspects.

And don't get me wrong, I had an amazing life.

I have an amazing life.

I had an amazing childhood, but there definitely were some aspects of it and also too in my current wool, like past tense current life that was happening while we were filming the show that was very eerily similar.

And it was a very therapeutic process having to deal with what was at hand for myself and kind of alchemize that and channel it into queries.

So not necessarily any.

I mean, of course there were big acting asks, like I've never been that vulnerable emotionally on screen before.

And I've also, yeah, I think that's a good way to put it.

I've never been that vulnerable emotionally on the screen before.

So there were big asks for acting.

But really it was more of a self sacrifice thing that was going on.

And Andrew, and you actually too, really like helped me get through that.

And it was a very, very beautiful experience.

It's a core memory.

It'll be in my life forever.

Like this year and this season changed my life, but before it's even come out.

And I thought that was really touching thing for them to share and that they weren't, they haven't been able to be that vulnerable on screen before.

So it's nice to see that like, oh, I'm down.

I'm down to do this.

Like I didn't just sign up to be an antagonist or a bully.

I'm here to do the full gamut of this character.

And I think there's bravery and vulnerability, right?

And I think that that goes for both Clarice, but also Dior as the actor bringing Clarice to life and being able to share that part of herself both on screen and in this interview, I think is really brave.

And I'm, I'm excited to see Clarice have multiple dimensions in, in Rick's interview, he kind of hit the nail on the head that in a lot of ways on the page, Clarice is very one-dimensional.

Especially in the book, I mean you have to think like this is just some Percy's POV too.

So it's just like, right?

How much is he going to know?

100%, and I think that that's what we got as the reader.

Like, she was kind of a bully.

She was an antagonist.

But I think through the series, through the television show, we're getting to flesh her out a lot more and give her motivation to why she's acting the way she's acting, right, Which I think is really important.

Yeah.

Regarding these characters, another thing that I thought was interesting, a question was asked of what's kind of like the main differences of being in Season 1 versus Season 2 and Leah Savage, Jeffrey said.

Something like Season 2 is a lot more complicated because you're fighting against your own family.

The difference definitely is it's it's still the amount of monsters, but at the same time it's more fights between the demigods.

I feel like this season, there was a lot where it was demigods fighting against monsters.

But in the second season, the intensity is not just intense by itself, but it's also because it's fighting against your own kind.

And I think that's one of the big differences of Season 1 to Season 2 because it's like, oh, these kids, they're going on a quest to, you know, survive.

But now, since we find out that Luke has left and there's a bunch of other kids that have changed as well, it's now like, you know, fight against your own family.

Yeah, they they really started to like lean into the the like the demigods that betrayed camp and and that whole part of the story that wasn't really talked about too much in the second book, you know?

Yeah.

In this season, they're older, they look a little different.

She even said that she said, you know, because her and Walker, they live on opposite sides of the country.

So during the hiatus they weren't like hanging out.

And so she said when I saw him, it was like, whoa.

But but I think that coming together in the second season, the first season was all about building that bond.

Second season's a little bit about what happens after that bond is created and things are a little rocky.

Well, and on on top of that, just going off of what we know from the story is that like there's the golden trio, which is Grover.

I was going to say Leah, I do this all the time.

I'm always like Leah, that's Leah, Annabeth and Percy is that there was also the broken trio, which is Thalia, Luke and Annabeth and Annabeth.

And so having that story kind of come back up into this and how that dynamics going to work is going to be really interesting just for that conflict and the friction between those characters.

And apparently we're going to get some really great flashbacks of that trio.

And which is another thing that Rick said, he was really excited to see that going from the page, which might have just been a few sentences to actually fill out scenes to build that relationship.

Where we always start is I will write an outline for the season based on the book and I will break it into 8 rough episodes and I'll share that with the showrunners and the writing team.

And normally we stick with that outline pretty much pretty faithfully.

Now the details may change or when certain things are talked about may change, but generally speaking, I've already kind of outlined my must haves.

So what you see in the second season, those are them.

And what surprised me most about the changes would be some of the flashback scenes.

We can dig so much deeper into them, showing Thalia, for instance, with Luke and Annabeth back when they were adventuring together.

Some of the most powerful scenes.

They're only mentioned in the books, but they really work well.

They pop when you see them on the screen.

So I'm very excited to see that because I think that that is some of the stuff that like we don't we haven't gotten yet even in the movie adaptation, right?

Like, there's just so many things that we, there's so much more to this story that we're finally going to be able to get.

And these are the moments.

Just sharing Rick's sentiment that he said the big set piece is ironclad, the sea of monsters, everything is amazing.

But the quieter moment service would really stuck with him.

Yeah.

And that's also what I'm really excited about.

Me too.

If Rick Reardon, the creator of Percy Jackson, is excited for those things, I think that we need to be excited for them as well.

What an amazing thing, like 20 years ago, he had started something and he's able to continue to write and expand on something.

And that's that's I would think is a blessing that any author would want.

And people are like loving it as well.

Last thing that I will say with this interview, and particularly the question that I had was able to ask Rick was what did he, what does he hope that fans understand about the mythology of the series after Season 2 or even during Season 2?

I think that I hope they will be very conflicted about whose side is the right side in this conflict.

Luke is our antagonist, but he's not wrong about some of the things he's saying.

And the gods are not necessarily the best leaders or the best parents.

So we should at this point be asking ourselves, wow, if I was a demigod, whose side would I choose?

And if you're not sure if you have mixed feelings, then we've done our job and hopefully you'll be really chomping at the bit for Season 3.

I'm liking that that theme is still being carried through this, yeah.

Yeah, he he had said something about the fact of like, although Luke is is their adversary, Luke has some good points.

I mean, those that have finished the series, I mean, sorry if it's a spoiler, but like, you know, I mean, he did any complicated care.

I think any villain or even just antagonist, I think that is written well.

You can always see good points, Yeah, that they're trying to make.

It's really the actions and what they do to try to get to those things that.

Aren't good that aren't good, Yeah.

Oh man, OK, I'm very excited.

I hope everybody else is excited.

I mean, I was just excited to be able to talk about Percy Jackson again, talk to the cast, talk to the.

It's just amazing.

I'm so excited.

Absolutely.

I'm super excited too, getting knowing that this is going, this is we're in the second book.

They're already planning and filming the third book.

Yo, stuff gets so real in the third one, I'm so excited.

Yeah, yeah.

I just think that a Percy Jackson is a franchise that I think lives in a lot of our hearts, and the fact that it's coming to life and coming to life really in a wonderful way.

It's just super exciting to see.

And I can't wait to see what happens the rest of the season, I hope.

You guys follow along with us as the episodes come out, as we get to talk about them.

I'm very excited.

Let us know what you're most excited for if we're season 2.

Yeah, We'll see you next time, guys.

Yeah, for for a deep dive into the 1st 2 episodes of the season.

We set into you all right.

Bye bye.