Disney+ screened previously unseen footage from Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 3 at Lucca Comics & Games in Italy on Friday. Stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri took the stage at the Teatro Moderno alongside co-creator Jonathan E. Steinberg and executive producer Dan Shotz.
One clip showed Thalia Grace, played by Tamara Smart, fighting a monster in an underground car park before Percy and Annabeth arrive to recruit her for a mission to rescue two young demigods from a military academy. In another, Percy declares "Zeus sucks!" — a line that drew a roar from the crowd, Variety reports from the panel.
Steinberg used the panel to raise the stakes for the new season. "Season 3 is really, really big," he said. "I think the story that we've been hinting at for two seasons about the bigger war is now starting to become real. And we're going to meet our first real bad guy."
That bad guy is Atlas, the Titan played by Holt McCallany, who serves as the central villain of the season. Shotz promised a larger canvas across the board: "Bigger monsters. We've got titans. We've got gods. And this season, we've got all the Gods."
The expanded Olympus brings new faces with it, including Kate McKinnon as Aphrodite, Ming-Na Wen as Hera and Hubert Smielecki as Apollo. Dafne Keen plays Artemis, whose disappearance sits at the heart of the season's quest.
Jeffries said Annabeth's role grows this season and gets tougher, with the character far more independent as she learns to rely on herself. Simhadri pointed to Grover finding kindred spirits among the Hunters of Artemis as a welcome change of pace for his character.
Season 3 adapts The Titan's Curse, the third book in Rick Riordan's bestselling series and the first time that story has reached the screen. Percy and Grover set out with Thalia to rescue Annabeth and the goddess Artemis, who have been captured by Atlas and the army of Kronos, while Levi Chrisopulos and Olive Abercrombie join as Nico and Bianca di Angelo and Charlie Bushnell returns as Luke Castellan.
The Lucca screening is the latest stop on the season's promotional run, following the opening minutes shown at San Diego Comic-Con in July, where the November premiere date was announced. The series has aired two seasons and 16 episodes so far, and Season 3 is its fastest turnaround yet as the young cast grows up alongside Riordan's books.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 3 premieres November 20 on Disney+ and Hulu, opening with two episodes and continuing with two new episodes each week through December 11.
