Published this piece for FSR last week:
While writing it my sister and I tossed around some ideas that never made it into the piece, because they’re a little too in-depth. Let’s discuss now.
Further Dream Casting
Jeremy Irons as Chiron: I think Irons has the perfect amount of posh Britishness to be Chiron as described in Lightning Thief. I also think Chiron got a bit weirder as the series went on and Riordan tried a little too hard to make him stand out from the “wise teacher archetype.” Chiron is fine as the wise teacher archetype, plus his immortality and ability to talk about all the heroes he knew in person is plenty of uniqueness without needing a weird character quirk like all the other tertiary characters. Giving Chiron depth in the series can be accomplished without pushing him into the sidelines.
Robert Sheehan as Luke: He’s maybe too old, but I think Sheehan has that cool senpai vibe about him that could work for Luke. Unfortunately I’m not that familiar with teenage actors of the day. That being said, I think more important is properly translating Good Luke into Evil Luke, and I believe Sheehan’s got it in him. He can certainly pull off both looks; compare/contrast his pretty boy getup in Mortal Engines with his Umbrella Academy vibes.
Cooper Andrews as Poseidon: A Shazam! alum like Jack Dylan Grazer, I really loved Andrews’ performance as a dad. I’d like to see this idea with a bit more nuance, what with the effects the godly element has upon both parents and children in this universe. And maybe it’s my appreciation for Aquaman affecting my perception but I like a Polynesian actor playing a sea god.
Paul Giamatti as Dionysus: I think this one needs no further explanation.
Ethnicity Swapping for a Contemporary Setting
In my piece, I recommended rewinding the temporal setting of the series to the 2000’s. I think it solves a number of potential inconsistencies with some of the rules of the world and how American society has changed in the last 16 years.
If the series is determined to be set in the current iteration of modern day, however, I think some tweaking will be needed. Notably, as my sister has pointed out, Manhattan is not a place for poor people to live. There’s no chance a family as poor as Percy’s could afford a place there.
So we got to chatting and she noted that it could potentially be very interesting to make Percy a Dominican kid from the Bronx. The MCU Spider-Man did something a bit like this, moving Tom Holland Peter into Queens. This maintains some of the broad strokes of Percy as a New Yorker, but updates the setting and brings diversity into play in a way that I can only assume Riordan, who, unlike J.K. Rowling, has expressed open and enthusiastic support for representation, would be wholly onboard for.
The lingering issue with this idea is that his mom would name him Percy. And since that’s technically short for Perseus, I’m willing to forgive it.
That’s it for this! Man I wanted to be the person who adapted this, all the way back in like 2017. Maybe they’ll still pick me? I can be the representative for the books on-set.
~Hans
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