Percy Jackson and the Olympians character designs will “follow the book” say designers

Percy Jackson & The Olympians’ costume designers and producers were told to be as close to the books as possible when creating the looks for the Greek Gods and the other characters that will appear in the first season of the upcoming Disney show.

The first season of the much anticipated Percy Jackson & The Olympians is set to arrive in 2024. While fans were recently treated to a new trailer and some more character still images, the exact plot and focus of the story are still largely under wraps.

However, fans can rest easy knowing that the creative team has been seemingly working their hardest to ensure that the first season of the show is as close to the beloved book as possible.

This accuracy includes the design of characters such as the Greek gods and the other well-known figures that Percy, Annabeth, and Grover encounter on their quest together.

During roundtable interviews at New York Comic Con 2023, production designer Dan Hennah and costume designer Tish Monaghan shared with The Geeky Waffle’s Candace Kaw that they were given strict instructions to make characters look as close as possible to how they are described in the book.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians characters will look like they do in the book

“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 licence 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.”

The designers also revealed that one of their favorite characters to bring to life and that they are excited for fans to see is the god of the Underworld himself, Hades.

“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 & The Olympians is set to release in 2024. For all the latest TV and Movie news and updates, be sure to check out Dexerto’s full coverage here.